Palestinian hunger striker could die ‘any moment,’ says lawyer

Mohammed al-Qiq’s health is “very, very bad,” lawyer Jawad Boulus tells AFP after a visit on Sunday. “He faces the possibility of death at any moment.” Qiq, a 33-year-old father of two and a correspondent for Saudi Arabia’s Almajd TV network, was arrested on November 21 at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah and is being held under Israel’s controversial administrative detention law.

He has been refusing food since November 25 in protest at “torture and ill treatment that he was subjected to during interrogation”, according to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization.

At 61 days since his strike began, Qiq’s organs are at risk of failure.

The Shin Bet alleges Qiq is an active member of the Islamist terrorist group Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip.

Administrative detention laws allow Israel to jail suspects without trial for six-month renewable periods, a policy which has been condemned by human rights advocates.

Qiq was transferred to hospital in the Israeli city of Afula about a month ago, a prisons authority spokeswoman said.

His family have previously said they expect Israel to feed him intravenously if he loses consciousness, though Israeli authorities have denied they will force-feed him.

A controversial Israeli law passed in July allows the force-feeding of prisoners in certain circumstances, though it has not yet been invoked.

Qiq was jailed for a month in 2003 and then for 13 months in 2004.

— AFP