Palestinian hunger striker "could die any moment"

Feb 15, 2012, 13:29 GMT

Ramallah - A Palestinian jailed in Israel 'could die any moment' after having refused food for 60 days, a group advocating the rights of Palestinian prisoners said Wednesday.

Khader Adnan's body has begun burning up all of his muscles, including his heart and stomach, the Addameer group said.

'He can have a heart attack or internal organ collapse at any moment,' Sahar Francis, the director-general of the Ramallah-based association, told dpa. 'His immune system too could cease to function any time.'

Adnan, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad organization, was detained in December in his village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin and placed under administrative detention. The measure allows Israel to detain people deemed a security risk for six months or longer.

Over the past week, the 33-year-old began taking minerals in his water and since Tuesday also glucose, but this would only protect his brain, not his muscles or other organs, said Francis.

She said a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights Israel visited the detainee in his hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed on Tuesday, and warned that he would die soon.

'Today his wife, father and two daughters are on their way to visit him. We hope they can convince him to stop,' she said.

Adnan is believed to be the longest ever Palestinian hunger striker jailed in Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman would only say he was placed under administrative detention based on intelligence reports. An Israeli military court last week rejected an apeal against the detention order.

Last month, jailed Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar, 31, died after 50 days without food.

In 1981, ten Irish hunger strikers died after 46 to 73 days.