Middle East & Africa | Palestinian hunger strikes

To feed or to free

Israel’s awkward bargaining with detainees who refuse to eat

|ASHKELON

ONE man’s fast, maintained behind the police barricades at Barzilai Medical Centre, highlights an agonising quandary for Israel. Muhammad Allan, a 31-year-old Palestinian lawyer and member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, this week entered the tenth week of a hunger strike. He was woken up on August 18th after four days in a medically-induced coma, and swiftly delivered an ultimatum: if his case was not resolved within 24 hours, he would refuse to drink water.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “To feed or to free”

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