Two teams of Israeli doctors have declined to force-feed him, saying the practice, allowed by an Israeli law passed in July, violated medical ethics.
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Allan, a 31-year-old lawyer from Nablus, began his hunger strike on June 16 to protest the renewal of his status as an administrative detainee, a type of detention that allows Israel to arrest and detain people without charging them with a crime, giving them a trial, or providing access to counsel.
Daniel Jacobsen, a Barzilai physician, told the court that should Allan regain consciousness and say that he wanted to discontinue treatment, the staff would honour his wishes.
As Allan struggled for his life, his supporters arrived aboard buses from Jerusalem, Jaffa and the north to hold a vigil outside Barzilai Medical Center where he is being treated and detained.
A Palestinian has been shot dead after stabbing an Israeli paramilitary police officer patrolling a road in the occupied West Bank, authorities say.
The forced-feeding bill was approved less than a month after Israel was compelled to release Khader Adnan, a famous former Palestinian prisoner, whose 56-day-long hunger strike brought him to the brink of death.
As for how force-feeding is implemented, he said it is “done by inserting a tube through his nose to his stomach”, adding that this tube “hits all the parts that it passes through inside the body, which causes (internal) cuts and bruises and puts the prisoner’s life at risk”.
Lawmakers argued the legislation is needed to deter Palestinian detainees from hunger striking to pressure Israel for their release or other demands.
Odai Allawi, a longtime friend and colleague, said he knew Allan at Arab American University in the West Bank city of Jenin, where he was a known political activist and elected to represent Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the university’s student union.
“Israel seeks to bury any attempt at victory by Palestinian prisoners in its prisons”.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said after a gag order was lifted on the case last month that Mengistu had been held by Hamas after crossing illegally into Gaza in September, but further details on his whereabouts have not been made clear.
Allaan has been held by Israel without trial since November under an anti-terror measure called “administrative detention”.
The Israeli government is deeply concerned that Palestinian prisoners who go on hunger strikes die in prison, instigating a protest wave in the West Bank. Mohammed Allan woke up on Tuesday after he slipped into unconsciousness on Friday.
Many Palestinians reportedly received treatment by local medics after inhaling tear gas during Saturday’s rally.
To force-feed, the doctor must restrain the conscious and shackled prisoner and insert a tube into his or her empty stomach.
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“But they support his strike – nobody but him can decide what he should do”.
