Palestinian Prisoner Faces Sudden Death After 122 Days on Hunger Strike

Doctors at the Israeli Barzilai Medical Center, where Palestinian administrative detainee Kayed Fasfous is being treated, have told his family that Fasfous is nearing sudden death after 122 days of hunger strike, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

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Fasfous, 34, from the southern West Bank town of Dura, has been on hunger strike to demand an end of his indefinite administrative detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Fasfous’s brother, Hasan, told WAFA that doctors at Barzilai told him that his brother has been developing symptoms suggesting a clot in his blood, which is an early warning of the risk of sudden death.

Hasan said his brother is also experiencing an intermittent loss of consciousness, irregular heartbeats, tingling in the chest, a decrease in blood pressure, kidney and heart problems, a shortage of fluids in his body and recurring pains and aches across his body.

On Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees Affairs submitted a petition to the Israeli high court demanding the immediate release of Fasfous and the annulment of his administrative detention order.

Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Currently, Israel is holding over 450 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance to the Israeli occupation.