A Palestinian man on hunger strike for more than 85 days since his arrest by Israel is entering a medically “critical phase,” the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
Maher al-Akhras, 49, was arrested near Nablus and placed in administrative detention, a policy that Israel uses to hold suspected terrorists without charge.
Maher al-Akhras, a 49-year-old security prisoner, while on a hunger strike in Kaplan hospital in Rehovot on October 8, 2020 (Aaron Boxerman/Times of Israel)
The married father of six launched his strike to protest the policy. He had been arrested several times previously by Israel.
“More than 85 days into the hunger strike, we are concerned about potentially irreversible health consequences,” says Yves Giebens, the head of the ICRC’s health department in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
“From a medical perspective, he is entering a critical phase,” Giebens adds in a statement.
The ICRC says it has been “closely monitoring” the situation, including a visit with Akhras today.
“The ICRC encourages the patient, his representatives and the competent authorities involved to find a solution that will avoid any loss of life,” the statement says.
— with AFP
Discover Israel's most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen 'The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg' June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 22, 2020
