Abu Hawash was imprisoned under the administrative detention policy, criticized by the UN and human rights groups because it allows Israel to arrest Palestinians at intervals typically ranging from three to six months based on undisclosed evidence that even the defendant’s attorney is prohibited from viewing.

The Maan and Al-Quds news agencies revealed that high-ranking representatives of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which controls the coastal enclave, and Islamic Jihad, met in Gaza to assess the situation.

The top official of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, spoke by phone with the secretary general of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala, to discuss the issue, Hamas announced in a statement.

The spokesman for the Prisoner and Former Prisoner Affairs Authority, Hassan Abd Rabbo, made statements to the official Wafa agency on Thursday affirming that the detainee’s state of health is critical, as he is in an intermittent coma and suffers from weak vision and inability to talk, plus heart problems and muscle atrophy.

In the midst of this situation, the West Bank village of Dura, where the prisoner is from, went on a general strike this morning to demand his release, and protests and marches intensified in various areas of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in solidarity with the detainee.

The European Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other global organizations also expressed concern about the prisoner’s health.

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