Re-jailed Palestinian hunger striker ends second fast after two days

Julie Wiener

(JTA) — Mohammad Allaan, the Palestinian prisoner who went on a 65-day hunger strike this summer, stopped a second fast after two days.

Allaan, 33, who was released from Israeli administrative detention in August and re-jailed this week, announced Friday he had suspended his fast for health and legal reasons, The Times of Israel reported.

An alleged member of the Islamic Jihad terror group, Allaan sustained brain damage from his hunger strike this summer, which was in protest of being held without charges since November.

Allaan, who is in a prison in Ramle, in central Israel, is currently unable to walk and is in a wheelchair, according to the Palestinian media outlet Ma’an.

He decided to restart his hunger strike once he was returned to custody, Reuters reported, citing a relative of Allan.

Allaan ended his hunger strike last month after Israel’s Supreme Court suspended, but did not cancel, his administrative detention order over his declining health due to fasting. It is unclear whether the brain damage Allaan suffered is permanent.

His hunger strike prompted Israel to pass legislation last month permitting force-feeding. The Israeli Medical Association has said it plans to challenge the law in the Supreme Court and urged physicians not to comply with it. Doctors in two Israeli hospitals refused to perform tests and provide nutrition to Allaan without his consent.

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