Health of Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails reaches critical condition

Dozens of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails have been admitted to Israeli hospitals as their health has now reached a critical condition, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

Around 200 prisoners have been on hunger strike for over a month to protest against the Israeli practice of administrative detention, where Palestinians are arrested and imprisoned indefinitely without ever being formally charged with any crime or being tried.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper cited the spokesperson of Israel’s Prison Authority as saying that: “Israel hospitalised 40 hunger-striking Palestinian detainees this week as their fast entered a second month.”

Israel’s Channel Two television reported an official in the Israeli syndication of doctors warning that Israel would be internationally criticised should any of the prisoners die.

“Palestinian hunger strikers have been admitted to hospitals many times, but this is the first time that such a large number [of prisoners] is being hospitalised,” Arabs 48 news website cited the report as saying.

Indeed, the international media have already started to pay attention to the developing story, with the Associated Press news agency reporting on Tuesday about the situation of administrative detainees as well as the worsening condition of the hunger strikers.

The Israeli television report also revealed that the heavily guarded hunger strikers in hospitals are refusing treatment. “We face a big problem,” the senior syndication official said, because “the prisoners do not cooperate with us and we cannot oblige them to be treated.”

“Doctors cannot treat a patient who refuses treatment, even if he is a prisoner,” the official added. “If a prisoner falls unconscious, three doctors must decide if he needs urgent treatment, and only then can they interfere to save his life.”

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said that 191 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention in April. Overall, Israel is holding more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in a military court system as a result of their political activities against the occupation.