Palestinian hunger striker rushed to intensive care

After 62 days without food, prisoner in serious condition; brother also hospitalized after refusing to eat for 2 months

By ToI Staff 5 September 2016, 12:55 am
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Palestinians hold posters against administrative detention and in support of Palestinian prisoners Bilal Kayed, Muhammad and Mahmud al-Balboul outside the United Nations building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 22, 2016. (Flash90)
Palestinians hold posters against administrative detention and in support of Palestinian prisoners Bilal Kayed, Muhammad and Mahmud al-Balboul outside the United Nations building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 22, 2016. (Flash90)

A Palestinian hunger striker held by Israel was rushed to intensive care on Sunday following serious health complications, according to Palestinian media reports.

Mahmoud al-Balboul has been refusing food since July 4th to protest being held without charge by the Israeli authorities. Balboul has lost more than 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and has had difficulty speaking, according to the Palestinian Maan news agency. He was being treated in Assaf Harofeh Hospital near Tel Aviv.

Doctors have warned that Balboul, 21, risks permanent paralysis if he refuses to take vitamin supplements. However, according to reports he has refused everything other than water.

On Thursday his brother, Muhammad al-Balboul, 26, was also taken to intensive care in the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv after his health suddenly deteriorated. He began his hunger strike on July 7th.

The two brothers were detained on June 9, according to Palestinian media sources, three days before their 16-year-old sister Nuran was released after four months in Israeli prison.

On August 24 Bilal Kayed, another hunger striker, ended his 71-day fast.

Kayed was meant to be freed from prison in June, after serving a 14-and-a-half-year sentence for activities in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, labeled a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union and the United States. Instead, Israeli authorities ordered that he remain in custody for a further six months under administrative detention, a measure that allows terror suspects to be held without charge for six-month stints, which can be renewed indefinitely.

However, Kayed, agreed to stop the strike after Israeli authorities said his current six-month term of internment would not be extended.

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