The Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs on Tuesday warned of possible deaths among hunger-striking prisoners and highlighted that their health had seriously deteriorated.Poor Abdallah Bargouthi! He must be a good guy for the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs to be so concerned for his well-being.
Issa Qaraqe said any tragic results at this stage would result in serious escalation amid prisoners and lead to negative consequences which could affect US efforts to restart peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.
Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer from the ministry of prisoners’ affairs, who visited the Jordanian hunger striker Abdullah Barghouthi in hospital, confirmed he was in real danger after 95 days on hunger strike.
According to al-Khatib, Barghouthi “can’t feel his left hand and can’t stand up.”
He also suffers from spells of dizziness, she added, highlighting that he also has symptoms of kidney and liver troubles and could face kidney failure if he continues with the strike.
Barghouthi has already lost 30 kilograms, according to al-Khatib quoting his doctors.
He has been hospitalized at Haemek Medical Center in Afula in northern Israel since shortly after he started a hunger strike on May 2.
Al-Khatib had noted earlier that he was chained to his hospital bed by his legs and his left hand.
An earlier Ma'an article, from July 20, gives slightly more details:
A lawyer for the PA ministry of prisoners' affairs said Barghouthi, a Jordanian citizen, could go into a coma at any moment.Oh, you mean he was a terrorist? Who would've guessed?
"I saw him breathing very heavily and he began to have fainting spells," Hanan al-Khatib said Friday after visiting him in Afula Hospital.
...Barghouthi is serving 67 life terms, the highest sentence ever handed down by an Israeli military court. He has been detained since March 2003.
A Hamas leader, Barghouthi was convicted of involvement in multiple attacks in Israel.
I wonder what attacks he was involved with?
Nothing big. He just built the bombs for the Sbarro pizza shop bombing, the Moment Cafe bombing, the Hebrew University bombing, the Zion Square refrigerator bombing, and the Rishon LeZion nightclub bombing. In other words, he was Hamas' chief bombmaker and responsible for the deaths of 66 Israelis.
Note also how the PA is working so hard on behalf of a Hamas bomber. There's unity for you!
One more detail:
He has been on hungers strike since May 2 and is demanding to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Jordanian jail, under the Wadi Araba agreement between Jordan and Israel.I can find nothing in the Wadi Araba agreement that mandates prisoner exchanges.
It is a shame that Barghouti is starving himself to death. He deserves a much more painful demise.
Luckily, the media has grown tired of the prisoner hunger strikes (especially when none of them ever seem to actually die, since these are "modified" hunger strikes, whatever that means) and no one really cares any more about these publicity stunts.
UPDATE: Ma'an has an adoring profile of Barghouti and his terror attacks in Arabic.