Palestinian teen shot dead after police stabbing

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.

Earlier this week, 200 Palestinian protesters reportedly clashed with Israeli right-wingers, who staged a counter-protest near the Barzilai hospital.

The Knesset passed the law last month to allow force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike if their lives are in danger. Allan served a 30-month sentence beginning in 2006 for militant activities.

Since he lost consciousness, doctors have used artificial breathing equipment, fluids and vitamins to keep him alive. Netanyahu bitterly opposes the deal, and with U.S.-Israel ties suffering, the prospects for any new U.S. diplomatic initiative seem poor. In June, it freed Khader Adnan, a 36-year-old senior activist in Islamic Jihad, after a 55-day hunger strike protesting his detention without charge.

Israel fears the death of a prisoner on a hunger strike could trigger Palestinian unrest amid the stalled peace negotiations.

The condition of Islamic Jihad activist Mohammed Allan, who began to refuse food two months ago, is being closely monitored by opposing forces in an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that could boil over in new violence if he dies.

The Oslo Accords did not address the issue of settlements and allocated more than 60 per cent of the West Bank to what is known as Area C, which is entirely under Israeli military administration.

Many Palestinian prisoners have staged hunger strikes, including those on administrative detention.

Saadi told The Associated Press that Allan is not in a coma yet and that doctors were doing brain and head scans to determine his condition. It is considered to be a lenient offer, as security officials have said Allan’s release constitutes a clear security risk.

When doctors there stated their refusal to force-feed Allan, he was transferred to Barzilai hospital on 10 August, where he was shackled to his hospital bed and placed under guard.

Doctors have lamented that they have been caught up in a political debate, and the Israeli Medical Association is challenging the force-feeding law in court.

“In our (Jewish) culture, I think human life has precedence, and we don’t allow people to die”, he said. In his current state, a patient like Allan “cannot declare what he would want at this specific point”, and that all treatment up to now had been in keeping with Israel’s medical ethics and patient’s rights policies, Birmanns said. Rubinstein urged the sides to reach a compromise on the matter, which has forced tensions to flare and sparked a debate in Israel over the ethics of the country’s new force-feeding law.

Jameel Khatib, one of his lawyers, rejected the offer of exile, calling instead for his immediate release but also raising the possibility of setting September 23, the start of a Muslim holiday, as a date for freeing him.