Hunger-striking prisoner wakes up from coma

A Palestinian hunger striker unconscious since the weekend has woken up from a medically induced coma and his condition has stabilized, doctors treating him said Tuesday.

Mohammed Allaan has refused food for 63 days to to protest his incarceration in Israeli administrative detention, which allows the state to hold prisoners indefinitely as a preventative security measure when intelligence suggests they may be involved in terror activities.

He had previously been described as near death, before doctors at Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon treated him with an infusion of liquids and salts.

“The patient is awake, communicative, and continues to receive medical treatment,” the hospital said in a statement.

Doctors had been weaning him off medications that put him in a coma and on a respirator since Sunday.

“We are continuing treatment on several different systems in his body, and we are at the same time beginning to gradually wean him off his coma and [artificial] respiration,” a doctor said earlier Monday, according to Ynet.

A lawyer by profession, Allaan has been held by Israel since last November on suspicion of membership in the Islamic Jihad group. He has been on hunger strike since June, and lost he consciousness Friday morning at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where he is being treated.

Several demonstrations in support of Allaan have been held since his condition began to deteriorate over the past two weeks, with pro-Palestinian protesters facing off against right-wing Israeli counterprotesters and Israeli police in sometimes violent confrontations

Following an appeal for Allaan’s release on medical grounds, the High Court found Monday that “there is no change in the justification for holding [Allaan] in administrative detention,” and said it would reconvene Wednesday for a further hearing on his possible release.

The state had earlier proposed that Allaan be freed on condition that he leave the country for four years.

The government on its part fears a massive hunger strike and wants to avoid setting a precedent with Allaan’s case.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan tweeted earlier on Monday that “if Allaan is released this will obviously lead to a massive hunger strike among security prisoners and become a new type of weapon for the terrorists.” The Israeli security establishment is concerned by statements made over the past week by Gaza terror groups, who warned that if Allaan dies their response will be “fierce.”

On July 30, the Knesset passed a controversial law allowing force-feeding of hunger strikers with a court order. Critics say the legislation violates the prisoners’ human rights, and the Israeli medical community has almost unanimously opposed it, saying that apart from the ethical consideration, force-feeding prisoners who have fasted for many days can be just as dangerous to their health as allowing them to continue fasting.

Doctors at Barzilai have said they would not force-feed Allaan.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club asked the hospital to wake Allaan up in order to examine his medical condition. After Allaan received a infusion of liquids and salts and his condition stabilized, it was appropriate to wake him up, since, the club said, the infusion already constituted an intervention in his hunger strike.

Some 400 Palestinians are held in Israel under administrative detention rules, according to figures released by the Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer cited by Ma’an.

Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.