Palestinian hunger-striker ‘lost ability to speak’

A Palestinian detained by Israel and on hunger strike for over two months has lost his ability to speak and most of his hearing, his lawyer and family says.

Mohammed al-Qiq’s condition is “very dangerous. He lost his ability to speak and 60 percent of his hearing,” his lawyer Jawad Boulus says in a statement.

Boulus visits Qiq on Sunday at the Emek Medical Center in the northern Israeli city of Afula, where he is being treated.

Speaking at a press conference, Qiq’s wife Faihaa says doctors had told her family that her husband could no longer speak.

“What are they waiting for in order to release my husband or look into his arrest?” she asks, and answers: “Until he suffers a brain hemorrhage or becomes a martyr.”

Spokeswomen for the hospital and the Israel Prison Service would not comment on the reports.

AFP

Campaign poster calling for the release of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed al-Qiq, who was arrested on November 21, 2015. (screen capture: YouTube)
Campaign poster calling for the release of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed al-Qiq, who was arrested on November 21, 2015. (screen capture: YouTube)

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