Palestinian resumes hunger strike after being rearrested in Israel

A Palestinian who went on a hunger strike for more than 60 days to protest his detention by Israeli authorities was rearrested Wednesday after his release from a hospital, prompting him to resume his fast, relatives said.

Israeli police arrested Mohammed Allan, 31, after he was discharged from Barzilai Medical Center in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, where he was getting treatment following serious deterioration of his health as a result of his fast, said Allan’s brother Amid.

Israeli media quoted security officials as saying Allan was rearrested because of intelligence information.”

Allan, an Islamic activist and lawyer from the West Bank, was arrested by Israel’s military in November and placed in custody without charges in what authorities described as a preventive measure.

He eventually launched a hunger strike that ended in August a day after Israel’s Supreme Court suspended the warrant for his administrative detention. The court froze the warrant after an MRI scan found he had suffered brain damage consistent with the effects of vitamin deficiency from prolonged fasting.

“He was under the impression that the court had set him free and therefore he ended his hunger strike,” said Qaddoura Faris, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Efforts by Allan’s family to move him from the Israeli hospital to a Palestinian one in the West Bank city of Nablus have failed. Allan threatened to stop taking medication at Barzilai if he was not allowed to continue medication in Nablus near his home village, Amid Allan said.

The hospital agreed to release Allan on Wednesday and gave him the necessary report to continue medication in Nablus, Amid Allan said, but Israeli security agents arrested him.

Amid Allan said his brother had told his family that if he were arrested again he would resume his hunger strike even if it resulted in his death. This time he will refuse to take medicine, drink water or talk to anyone, in addition to not eating, Amid Allan said.

A prisoners advocacy group based in the Gaza Strip said Israeli authorities told Allan’s lawyer that he will be kept in prison until he completes his administrative detention sentence, which ends Nov. 4.

Abukhater is special correspondent.

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