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Photo by AFP/Ahmad Gharabli
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UPDATE: August 16,2015

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Senior Palestinian Authority officials on Sunday accused Israeli authorities of preventing a Palestinian doctor from visiting Palestinian hunger striker Muhammad Allan at Barzilai Medical Center.

Issa Qaraqe, the head of the PA Prisoners' Affairs Committee, and PA Minister of Health Jawwad Awwad accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of personally interfering in the case and preventing Dr. Hani Abdeen from visiting Allan to examine his health.

They said that it was an attempt to conceal Allan's state of health, and that it indicated Netanyahu's "intention" to allow Allan to die.

Netanyahu's chief spokesperson, Mark Regev, said he could not confirm whether Netanyhu had interfered, but added that he "did not know that to be true."

The official Palestinian news site in Gaza, Al-Ray, said earlier on Sunday that Israeli authorities had decided to allow Dr. Abdeen to visit Allan.

Dr. Abdeen was selected by the PA Prisoners' Affairs Committee and the Ministry of Health after Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset requested that a Palestinian doctor be allowed to examine Allan.

Allan, who is a lawyer from the West Bank village of Einabus, has been on hunger strike 62 days.

He slipped into a coma on Friday after his health deteriorated sharply, and Barzilai Medical Center has since connected him to ventilators and is giving him fluids and sodium intravenously.

The medical center has suggested it might make use of a controversial new Israeli law to force feed him.

Allan went on hunger strike to protest his administrative detention -- internment without trial or charge -- which he has been held under since November.
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) Aug 15, 2015-- Muhammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike more than 60 days, refused an Israeli offer to continue his administrative detention for a period of two years, Allan's lawyer told Ma'an Saturday.

Allan's lawyer Jamil al-Khatib told Ma'an that the offer was made before his health condition was critical.

Allan remains at Israeli Barzilai Medical Center, where he went into a coma on Friday, and is currently connected to ventilators and intravenous fluids.

His health condition has been rapidly deteriorating, al-Khatib said.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Ma'an on Friday that Allan's situation was "extremely critical."

Allan's mother was allowed to visit her son after ICRC coordinated permission with Israeli authorities, a spokesperson for the organization told Ma'an.

According to al-Khatib, Allan’s mother has remained in the medical center.

When exiting her son's hospital room on Friday afternoon, Allan's mother told Ma'an that her son was dying.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said Friday that once Allan lost consciousness "medical ethics requires that his doctors act in accordance to their understanding of the patient's will and their discretion."

Al-Khatib added that administering Allan with fluids and vitamins intravenously does not break his hunger strike, but according to the Israeli Patient’s Right Act the treatment is considered life-saving.

Israeli authorities have previously said they would make use of a controversial new law to force feed Allan if his health became critical.

The Israeli Knesset last month approved a law allowing prisoners on hunger strike to be force fed if their condition becomes life-threatening, sparking outcry from rights groups and medical experts.

The practice amounts to torture under international law.

Hunger strikes are frequently used by Palestinian prisoners protesting their treatment and lack of due process inside of Israeli jails.

There are nearly 6,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails, around 400 of whom are being held under administrative detention.