Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Israeli Supreme Court has suspended the detention regime against Mohammed Allan, a Palestinian who has been on hunger strike to protest against his indefinite administrative detention. For more than 65 days he has not eaten and is believed to have suffered brain damage as a consequence. However, the court has not ordered the man's release and he is still subject to the administrative detention order.
Authorities arrested him in November 2014 on charges of belonging to the extremist group Islamic Jihad. Claiming his innocence, since last June the man has refused food and his condition soon deteriorated.
In recent days, Israel proposed early November as the date of release, in exchange his halting the hunger strike. According to doctors who are treating him in Ashkelon, a coastal city in the south of the country, his condition is "serious" and of grave concern.
Allan Mohammed, 31, is in intensive care at the hospital in Barzelai and the Israeli authorities have suspended the regime of administrative detention, under which suspects can be held for long periods - renewable every six months - even without specific charges. The court also decided that he can receive visits from his family, but will remain in the hospital until a final decisions about his future is made.
One of the medical team treating him, Dr. Hezy Levy, speaks of "some damage in an area of the brain" caused "by the lack of vitamins". He added that it is currently not possible to know whether the damage to nature "irreversible."
For the Israeli Ministry of Justice Allan is involved in "serious terrorist activities". According to "secret" information there are indications he is involved in terrorist activity and the detention is necessary as a precautionary measure while investigations continue. In contrast, the man denies any wrongdoing and denies involvement with the Islamic Jihad and other extremist movements.
Analysts and experts do not hide the fear of an escalation of violence in case Allan dies. For weeks there has been a growing atmosphere of tension in the area, exacerbated by the death of a Palestinian child just 18 months old in an arson attack on his home. Still today, there about 340 Palestinian citizens held in Israeli prisons under administrative detention; many of these have on several occasions, gone on hunger strike as a form of protest.
Last month, Israel passed a law that provides for the force-feeding of prisoners who adopt the hunger strike as a form of protest against the prison regime.