Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian who allegedly tried to stab a regime police officer in the West Bank on Monday, occupation authorities claimed, in the fourth such incident in a week.
Palestinian prisoners have held rounds of hunger strikes over recent years, sparking tensions on the streets.
Police arrested 15 people in Ashkelon Sunday after protesters in support of and against Allan clashed outside the hospital.
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.
Palestinian detainee Shireen Issawi, held by Israel without trial for alleged involvement with terrorist groups, launched a hunger strike Monday in solidarity with a prisoner who’s protested by going without food for over two months. “They wanted to prevent us from showing solidarity with a person that the state is punishing for no fault of his own”.
Official Palestinian statistics show that there are more than 6,500 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons. He has been on a hunger strike for some 60 days.
The United Nations has called the law a “cause for concern”.
“We can’t solve any political or security or policemen’s work”, said Tami Karni, chair of the medical association’s ethics bureau. It has denounced the law as unethical and a violation of worldwide conventions.
Allan was initially held in a hospital in Beer Sheba but was moved to a different hospital when doctors there refused to force-feed him.
Shimon Glick, a physician and professor of medicine at Ben Gurion University said he “would have no hesitation” complying with a force-feeding order.
To force-feed, the doctor must restrain the conscious and shackled prisoner and insert a tube into his or her empty stomach.
The actions of hunger strikers like Mr Allan are helping to write this new chapter and hopefully sow the ultimate resolution.
Jamil al-Khatib, one of Allan’s lawyers, said no force-feeding had occurred or was expected to occur, because Israel’s doctors have largely rejected the idea as unethical.
Israel does not allow its citizens to enter Gaza, partly over fears that they may be used as bargaining chips to demand concessions, including the release of prisoners.
His brother, Ameed, described him as a “fun, cheerful person” who was “successful in his life and work as a lawyer protecting the rights of the oppressed”.
“The mere existence of the game means above all else that the outspoken bravery of Palestinian football players and their supporters has produced results”, said Dave Zirin, Sports Editor for The Nation.
