Chairman of the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Minister Issa Qaraqe, said on Sunday that the health condition of hunger striking Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails Mohammad Allan has significantly deteriorated.

According to Qaraqe, physicians at Barzilai Medical Center, where Allan is being hospitalized, discovered a bile leakage from his gallbladder that spread into his liver and intestines; which would poison his body if left untreated.

Allan was moved from Soroka hospital in Beersheba – which refused to force-feed Allan - to Barzilai medical center, as the latter’s administration expressed willingness to force-feed him. However, according to media, the Barzili center has not forced-him yet.

A statement issued regarding the position of the center's director, Chezy Levy, stated that although force-feeding is unacceptable, they would intervene if he needs urgent treatment to save his life and without Allan’s consent.

Qaraqi stressed that efforts are being exerted to ensure Allan’s release and provide him with the much needed treatment.

Allan, an Islamic Jihad activist and an attorney, has seen a significant deterioration in his health after 64 days of hunger strike against administrative detention, a measure that allows Israel to imprison detainees without charge and for renewable periods of time. He was arrested in November 2014 and has been placed under administrative detention since then.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy which violates international law.

While the United Nations considers hunger strike as “a non-violent form of protest used by individuals who have exhausted other forms of protest to highlight the seriousness of their situations”, on July 30, the Israeli parliament, Knesset, approved the final reading of a legislation allowing the force-feeding of hunger striking Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, a step that was widely condemned, including by the Israeli Medical Association.

(WAFA)