Palestinian official: Hunger-striking prisoner at death’s door

The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry warned Tuesday that a hunger-striking prisoner held without charges by Israel has suffered a deterioration in health, with doctors saying he could face “sudden death.” The Israeli hospital where he is being treated, however, insisted his condition was “satisfactory.”

Bilal Kayed has refused food for 50 days, since being placed in administrative detention immediately after ending a lengthy prison sentence.

In a statement, the ministry said its director, Kamal al-Shakhra, accompanied by a medical team, visited Kayed at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where he is being held, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

The prisoner, who is reportedly handcuffed to his hospital bed, has “severe weakness, vision problems, a lung infection, heart complications, and rapid weight loss,” the ministry said.

He is taking water, salt, and vitamins because doctors have warned of the possibility of “sudden death,” according to the report.

But Barzilai Hospital denied the report as false, with a spokesperson telling The Times of Israel that while the Palestinian health minister had indeed visited Kayed, the prisoner’s condition was “satisfactory.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli Joint (Arab) List Knesset faction said that Kayed could end his fast soon after it emerged that the detention order against him is months shorter than originally thought.

The faction said in a statement that its member MK Youssef Jabareen had sent a request to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman asking him if Kayed is to be released next week.

Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan responded, saying he was informed on Tuesday night that the administrative detention order expires August 12.

“If the matter regarding the end of the detention order is shown to be true, the prisoner is expected to end his hunger strike since until now it was said to be an administrative detention order for six months until December 12,” the Joint List said.

Kayed began his hunger strike in June in protest of his internment under Israel’s administrative detention law, which allows the state to hold prisoners without charges for renewable six-month periods.

He had served a 14-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, and was due for release on June 15.

On the day he was to have been released authorities placed him under administrative detention, prompting him to begin his hunger strike.

The PA health ministry called on the international community to intervene and urge Kayed’s release from administrative detention, the report said.

Last week some 100 Palestinian security prisoners joined a mass hunger strike in Israeli jails, according to reports in Palestinian media. The inmates launched the fast in solidarity with three hunger strikers protesting their detention without trial — Kayed, and Muhammad and Mahmud al-Balboul, Ma’an reported at the time.

The Israel Prisons Service was working to have the prisoners end their hunger strikes, sanctioning them with NIS 600 ($156) fines and solitary confinement and barring their family members from visiting, the report said.

Administrative detention is intended to allow authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, with the aim of preventing further attacks in the meantime. The system has been criticized by Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community.

Of more than 7,500 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails, around 700 are being held under administrative detention, Palestinian rights groups say.

Palestinians have regularly gone on hunger strike to protest their detentions.

AFP contributed to this report.