ICRC: Hunger striking Palestinian detainee's life in danger

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) yesterday expressed its “concerns” about the deteriorating health conditions of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan, a statement said.

Adnan has been on hunger strike for almost 50 days. Medical sources said his health condition is severely dangerous. His family has been banned from visiting you.

“We are concerned that his life is at immediate risk,” Jacques de Maio, the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the Occupied Territories, said in a statement.

“Any solution must, however, take into account the necessity of protecting the detainee’s moral and physical integrity,” De Maio said.

He noted that under resolutions of the World Medical Association, a detainee is entitled to choose whether to be fed or receive medical treatment. So, “it is essential that a detainee’s choice be respected and his or her dignity is preserved.”

De Maio called for giving the chance for his family to visit him urgently. “His family is anxious about his health,” he said, “we urgently request the Israeli authorities to allow them to visit him. It is more than two months since he was granted a family visit.”

The ICRC official cited the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which gives detainees a right to be visited by their families. “Given the circumstances, permitting his relatives to visit Mr Adnan, without delay, is the right thing to do,” he said.

According to the statement, ICRC delegates and medical staff have visited Adnan regularly to monitor both his health and his treatment by prison authorities since he began his hunger strike. The ICRC has also been in contact with his family and passed his greetings to them.