Clashes Break Out Outside Hospital of Hunger-Striking Palestinian


Clashes Break Out Outside Hospital of Hunger-Striking Palestinian

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Supporters of a Palestinian held by Israel without trial clashed with police near the hospital treating him after he lost consciousness during a hunger strike.

Police said on Sunday they arrested more than 10 protesters, including Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, for throwing stones at officers and "disrupting public order" in the southern city of Ashkelon where 31-year-old Mohammed Allan is being treated.

Palestinians had planned to stage a rally outside the Barzilai hospital, but Jewish right-wing activists confronted them, chanting racist slogans and saying they hoped Allan died, AFP reported on Monday.

Clashes with police, including stone-throwing from both sides, erupted outside the hospital where Jewish protesters also broke the windows of a Palestinian television news vehicle.

Police separated hundreds of people from each side, with the 1948 Palestinians waving Palestinian flags, chanting their support for Allan and calling for his release.

Allan, slipped into a coma Friday after ingesting only water since June 18 in protest at his being held in custody without charge. Since November he has been in what is known as administrative detention, which allows people to be held without charge for six-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely.

A spokeswoman for Barzilai told AFP late Sunday that Allan remained unconscious but stable and said he was given fluids and salts intravenously, and was breathing with the aid of an artificial respirator.

If and when he regains consciousness – and if he continues to refuse to eat – Israel’s cabinet must decide whether it will invoke a law passed in July allowing the force-feeding of prisoners when their lives are endangered.

It was not clear how such force-feeding would take place.

Doctors and rights activists strongly oppose the law, including those who say force-feeding amounts to torture and robs Palestinians of a legitimate form of protest.

The law has provoked intense debate, particularly with doctors saying they will decline to carry out force-feeding since the new legislation gives them the choice of whether or not to do so.

Israeli figures indicate that of the nearly 5,700 Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel, some 379 are under administrative detention.

Many Palestinian prisoners have gone on hunger strike to protest, including those on administrative detention. 

Meanwhile, several dozen people entered the Red Cross headquarters in East Jerusalem with photos of Allan on Sunday.

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