Mohammed Allan, imprisoned without charge since November last year, loses consciousness on day 60 of protest against administrative detention

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A Palestinian lawyer has fallen into a coma after entering his 60th day on hunger strike while being held by Israel in administrative detention.

Mohammed Allan, who has been imprisoned without charge or trial since November last year, was put on a respirator on Friday and is receiving fluids – the first medical treatment he has received since beginning his protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention.

Allan, 31, allegedly a member of Islamic Jihad, had refused any medical treatment, vitamins or minerals but had been drinking water.

A spokesperson for Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel, said in a statement: “The condition of Mohammed Allan deteriorated this morning. He is receiving treatment and his condition is stable. The treatment is being administered according to the ethics committee guidelines and includes respiration and intravenous fluids and saline.”

Last month, the Knesset passed a law permitting the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike if their life is in danger.

Israel has long been concerned that hunger strikes by Palestinians in its jails could end in deaths and trigger waves of protests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. On Friday, the Israel prison service declared a state of emergency across Israeli jails, closing all sections and imposing a curfew on all prisoners.

Last Friday, the International Red Cross issued a warning that Allan’s situation was rapidly deteriorating and his life was at risk. After doctors at Soroka hospital in Beersheba refused to force-feed him, he was transferred to Barzilai on Monday.

Doctors there have also stated they would not force-feed Allan, but the hospital’s medical director, Dr Chezi Levy, did not rule it out when speaking with the media this week.

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The Israel Medical Association came out explicitly against the law, declaring it to be “equivalent to torture and every physician has the right to refuse to force-feed a hunger striker against his or her will”. The IMA has issued a petition to the supreme court regarding the legality of force-feeding, which is scheduled to be heard in September.

“Once Allan lost consciousness, medical ethics requires that his doctors act in accordance to their understanding of the patient’s will and their discretion,” the Israeli organisation Physicians for Human Rights told the Guardian, adding: “The state of Israel is responsible for his health.” The group has called on Israel to release Allan from administrative detention.

According to Israel’s prison service and the human rights group B’Tselem, nearly 400 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention. In July, Israel released the Palestinian administrative detainee Khader Adnan following a hunger strike lasting more than 50 days that endangered his life.