A Palestinian held by Israel without trial has slipped into a coma after a nearly two-month hunger strike, his lawyer said Friday, raising fears for his life. "I was informed yesterday (Thursday) evening by the (Israeli) hospital where he is being held that he had fallen into a coma," Jamil al-Khatib, 31-year-old Mohammed Allan's attorney, told AFP.
A spokeswoman for Barzilai hospital in the southern city of Ashkelon confirmed Allan's condition had "deteriorated", adding he was receiving fluids and salts by intravenous drip and aided by an artificial respirator. "His condition is stable," she said in a statement. "The treatment is in accordance with the instructions of the ethics committee."
Allan, an alleged Islamic Jihad activist who has been held without charge by Israel since November, has been on hunger strike since June 18, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. His relatives say his fast began in protest at being held under what Israel calls administrative detention, a controversial procedure allowing indefinite detention without charge.
Israeli figures indicate that of the nearly 5,700 Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel, some 379 are under administrative detention. His case has become a source of growing concern among the Palestinian public, while Israel faces a dilemma over whether to force-feed the protester. In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, near his hometown, around 1,000 staged a march for Allan on Friday. "My son is in a coma. He's my son, but also the son of the entire Palestinian people," Allan's father Nasser Eddine told the crowd.