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Palestinian killed after stabbing Israeli police officer

Allan started the hunger strike after his detention without charge was renewed in May, his family has said.

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Some Palestinians feel the law is intended to weaken negotiating powers of prisoners who frequently use hunger strikes to protest administrative detention – a provision which authorizes Israeli authorities to detain inmates for six months and is often extended to prolong imprisonment for years.

Israeli defense officials estimate that Allaan’s death could lead to violence not only in the West Bank but Gaza as well.

“My son is in a coma”.

This way, he said, “a Palestinian vehicle can’t get into an Israeli settlement, and Israeli vehicles cannot get into Palestinian settlements”.

The army said the man approached a group of soldiers, telling them he felt unwell.

Israel has not formally charged Allan with any crime but alleged that he was involved in “grave terrorism” on behalf of Islamic Jihad, which has threatened attacks against Israel if he dies.

Writing on Facebook Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Public Security Minister and one of the architects of the force-feeding law, said that doctors were obligated by their “medical oath” to take whatever measure necessary to save patients lives, including forcibly administering food.

Arab Knesset members are strongly opposed.

“This force-feeding is trying to be imposed on doctors for security and political reasons, that have nothing to do with medical reasons”, Walden said. “There’s no need to go straight to forced-feeding”. The attorney, Kamal Natur, appealed to the court on Saturday to release him on medical grounds.

Israeli media reported the military heightened its alert after news of his condition spread.

“In the early hours of this morning, there was a deterioration in Mohammad Allan’s condition”, said Ayelet Kedar, a spokeswoman for the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel.

The global Committee of the Red Cross, which has visited Allan several times, has warned that he was “at immediate risk” of death.

“The only action that can save his life, and the only option the government can do, would be to release him”.

“He is on mechanical respiratory support now”, el-Khatib told Al Jazeera on Friday.

Some Palestinian administrative detainees, whom Israel has held without trial or pressing charges, have used hunger strike protests to try to effect their release.

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A number of other Palestinian prisoners have also resorted to hunger strikes – a practice the United Nations has labeled “a fundamental human right” – to protest their indefinite detention.

The military said both the soldier and suspected assailant who was arrested were lightly wounded