The IDF has deployed Iron Dome batteries near Ashdod and Beer Sheva amid concerns that the security situation may escalate. It is feared that missiles may be fired from the Gaza Strip if Islamic Jihad hunger striker Mohammed Allaan dies in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, where he was hospitalized, due to his worsening medical condition.
Barzilai Hospital CEO and medical director Dr. Chezy Levy today issued the following update about Allaan's condition: "I'm much more optimistic today. His condition declined last night, but his situation improved today. This does not address the question of whether or not the damage is irreparable… He is showing great improvement. We have discontinued the anesthesia and the artificial respiration. He has begun to communicate, and from a medical standpoint, is on the road to recovery. Our recommendation is that he should slowly begin feeding with glucose.
Levy added, "We have discontinued Allaan's artificial respiration and anesthesia. His relatives will be allowed to visit him in the morning, as with any patient. No pressure has been exerted on the hospital to act differently than it has. We are constantly consulting ethical authorities. We have been in center of a public storm, and we still are, but we are part of the health system, and must assume difficult tasks. It is clear to me that this is a political problem, but the politicians have exerted no pressure, and we have acted medically and professionally."
According to Levy, "As a citizen of Israel, I understand the sensitive situation concerning the treatment and its place in Israel's struggle against its enemies from within and without. Nevertheless, ours is a sensitive profession that is subject to ethics. We cannot be perceived as an unenlightened country. I am on the side of the profession I love so much, and which is so important to me, and this profession constantly walks a very narrow path between the right of an independent human being to make decisions about his body and our need to be loyal to the oath we swore to save lives."
Allaan, 30, from the village of Einabus near Nablus, has been in detention since November 2014, and has been on a hunger strike since June 15. Because he is under administrative detention, the suspicions against him have not been published. An Islamic Jihad operative, he was imprisoned twice in the past for a total of six years. As a result of his deteriorating medical condition, Supreme Court justices yesterday ruled that he did not constitute a danger, and that his condition required the suspension of the arrest warrant against him. After he regained consciousness yesterday, Allaan was anesthetized again, and is now continuing to receive medical treatment at Barzilai hospital.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 20, 2015
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