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Open letter of over 50 doctors – English | Arabic | Hebrew
Joint urgent call of health and human rights local organizations – English | Arabic | Hebrew
Medical opinion
Khalil Awawdeh (40, married and a father to 4 children) has been on hunger strike for 165 days in protest of his administrative detention. On Thursday, the 11th of August, Dr. Lina Qasem-Hassan, the chairperson of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, visited him at Shamir hospital. Weighing 42 kg, Awawdeh was handcuffed to a bed, confused, surrounded by prison guards. Dr. Qasem-Hassan reported that he suffers from severe neurological symptoms and cognitive impairment, which might be irreversible. She concluded that his condition is critical and that his life is in immediate danger. She made sure Awawdeh understood the implications of his prolonged hunger strike. Awawdeh stressed that he doesn’t wish to die, but the hunger strike is his last resort in the face of his administrative detention.
According to the expected chronology of a prolonged hunger strike, a significant deficiency in essential vitamins is expected. This includes vitamin K deficiency, which may lead to bleeding, and a vitamin B1 deficiency, which is causing the patient’s dizziness and nystagmus and may risk irreversible life-threatening brain damage. Damage to the immune system is also expected, leading to various infections. Additionally, deficiency in salts, particularly potassium, is likely to lead to cardiac complications, including arrhythmias and cardiac arrest that cause death.
Open letter of over 50 doctors
Over 50 Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli doctors, signed on a joint medical open letter calling Israel to release Awawdeh and to end its policy of administrative detention. As health professionals advocating for the rights of people on hunger strike, they express their deep concerned for the well-being of Khalil Awawdeh and Israel’s frequent use of administrative detention which causes people to go on prolonged hunger strikes, as a last resort to resist the draconian means of administrative detention. All the undersigned are volunteers, members of ethics committee, and some are board members of Physicians for Human Rights Israel
Joint urgent call of health and human rights local organizations
15 Israeli human rights organizations sent an urgent message calling Israel to release Khalil Awawdeh promotly and end its wide use of policy of administrative detention. Awawdeh is one of 671 Palestinians that Israel holds in administrative detention, without trial, in violation of international law, and to the detriment of Palestinian society under Israeli occupation. Awawdeh’s life is at imminent risk, and upholding his administrative detention for political reasons constitutes a grave violation of human rights. The organizations stated that the only way to save Awawdeh’s life is to release him from administrative detention promptly.
