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Update, Monday Sept 17,2012

Lawyer: Hunger striking prisoner hospitalized
Published today (updated) 17/09/2012 20:17
On Monday, al-Barq entered his 119th day on hunger strike.

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Barq was hospitalized on Monday as he entered his 119th day on hunger strike, a lawyer said.

Jawad Boulos of the Palestinian prisoners society told Ma'an that al-Barq was taken to a civilian hospital in central Israel after collapsing in Ramla prison clinic.

Doctors at the clinic could not deal with al-Barq's health condition and he was transferred by ambulance to Assaf Harofeh medical center.

Al-Barq had stopped drinking water or taking intravenous fluids, Boulus said.

Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe told Ma'an on Sunday that Israel had agreed to al-Barq's request to be deported to Egypt

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Sunday, Sept 16, 2012

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have decided to deport hunger-striking prisoner Samer al-Barq to Egypt, a PA official said Sunday.

Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe told Ma'an that Israel agreed to al-Barq's request to be deported to the country.

No date has been set for the arrangement to be carried out, Qaraqe added, noting that al-Barq will not end his hunger strike action until the agreement is finalized.

According to the PA minister, Israel had previously agreed to deport al-Barq but a host country could not be found.

The hunger striking detainee is married to a Pakistani citizen and had previously expressed a desire to be released to the country, Qaraqe added.

Al-Barq is on his 118th day of renewed hunger strike. He has been detained without charge or trial since July 2010.

He ended a month-long hunger strike in May after Israel agreed to address the issue of administrative detention and resumed his hunger strike a week later when Israel renewed his detention without charge or trial.

Hunger strikers in critical condition

The European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday called on Israel to "do all it can to preserve the health" of Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails.

In addition to al-Barq, Hassan Safadi has been on renewed hunger strike for 88 days and Ayman Sharawna has refused food for 78 days.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned on Friday that the hunger strikers were in a critical condition, and urged a prompt solution.

Safadi is suffering heart contractions and chronic pain in his kidneys and joints, Fares Ziad, a lawyer for the prisoner rights group Addameer, said.

Israel has never brought any charges against Safadi, despite detaining him repeatedly since the mid 1990s.

Safadi ended a previous 71-day hunger strike after Israel agreed not to renew the administrative detention of long-term hunger strikers in its May deal to end a mass strike.

He restarted his hunger strike in June when Israel renewed his detention order without a trial in breach of the deal.

Ziad also visited Sharawna, who is vomiting blood as well as the water he drinks, and has lost 80 percent of the vision in his right eye.

Sharawna was released in Israel's prisoner swap deal with Hamas in October 2011, but rearrested in January. Israel has not charged him with any crime.