Palestinian shot dead after stabbing Israeli officer

The Israeli military says its troops shot a Palestinian man who stabbed an Israeli soldier after asking for a glass of water.

On Saturday, two stabbing attacks took place in the West Bank.

For his part, the head of the Red Crescent Society in Nablus, Abdelhalim Jaafreh, told journalists that the man was fatally hit by five bullets and that doctors at the hospital had done nothing to save him.

According to Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri, the attacker approached the checkpoint, telling border police officers there that he felt unwell. Soldiers manning the checkpoint shot and injured him.

According to al-Khuffash, Allan “will be restrained and anesthetized so as to not resist the procedure”.

Israel’s High Court Wednesday will continue hearing a petition by Allan’s lawyers calling for his release on medical grounds.

The forced-feeding bill was approved less than a month after Israel was compelled to release Khader Adnan, a famous former Palestinian prisoner, whose 56-day-long hunger strike brought him to the brink of death.

Israel sees his hunger strike, which began more than 60 days ago, as a powerful challenge against “administrative detention”, a practice that has drawn criticism from Palestinians and human rights groups but which Israel calls a security necessity.

Tensions have soared in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks in the wake of the deadly firebombing of a Palestinian home, attributed to Israeli settlers.

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 fears that a hunger-striking prisoner’s death could trigger Palestinian unrest amid widespread disillusionment with stalled peace negotiations.

Doctors at Barzilai told the Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday that Allan remains in stable condition and is receiving vitamins and nutrients intravenously, but no protiens or calories.

“I wouldn’t call it an intifada or terror attacks by the traditional Palestinian terror organizations”, Dichter said, while not absolving Palestinian Authority President Muhammad Abbas and his cabinet, who he says are still to blame since the terrorists are “not blocked by them either, and that is no less important”.

Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes before to draw attention to their detention without trial or charges.

A protestor at a demonstration for the release of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan, outside of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel.

Israeli authorities have resolved to force-feed Allan, with a law passed by the Knesset last month legalising the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike if their lives are in danger.