Devastating blood clot ends Palestinian prisoner’s hunger strike

A Palestinian hunger striker has ended his participation in the “Freedom and Dignity” movement as a result of the severe deterioration of his health.

Atef Abd al-Karim Mariah from Beita, who is serving a 16-year sentence in the Negev-area Ketziot (al-Naqab) prison, was convinced to stop his hunger strike after he developed a serious blood clot in his left leg, a senior Fatah official said in a statement.

Secretary of the Fatah movement in the Nablus-area village of Beita, Bashar Khreiwish, said the movement made the decision to end Mariah’s hunger strike on its sixth day.

Mariah had begun hunger striking on 22 April, five days into the mass hunger strike in which an estimated 1,500 Palestinian prisoners refused all forms of nutrition except salt and water.

Read: Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails begin hunger strike

Khreiwish added that 34 prisoners from Beita have joined the hunger strike, led by imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, since it began.