JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Supreme Court has announced it will hold an emergency hearing for an incarcerated Palestinian who is waging a lengthy hunger strike that has put his life in danger.
A statement from the court Monday said the hearing will be held the next day. No explanation was given.
Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan says his client Khader Adnan, on his 65th day of a hunger strike, will appeal his detention at the hearing.
Adnan was a spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad.
He is being held under an Israeli security policy that allows detaining suspected Palestinian militants without trial or formal charges.
The hearing was initially scheduled for Thursday. Hassan said he and other lawyers appealed for an earlier date, saying Adnan was in danger of death.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing this week on the appeal of a Palestinian prisoner waging an unprecedented hunger strike that has stretched for more than two months, court officials and his lawyers said Monday.
Khader Adnan, a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, is demanding he be released immediately. He has not been charged with a crime and does not know what he is suspected of doing.
The case of the 33-year-old Adnan has attracted widespread attention among Palestinians, with large crowds holding regular protests in his support.
The life-threatening gamble has also drawn broader attention toward Israel's policy of "administrative detention," under which Palestinians can be held without charge for months, and even years, at a time.
Both the European Union and the United Nations have said they are following the case closely and urged Israel to give Adnan an open trial.
Adnan was arrested on Dec. 17 and later sentenced to four months of administrative detention. He launched the strike a day after his arrest, protesting his administrative detention and claiming he was beaten and humiliated in captivity.
Israel has defended its policy as a way to address imminent security threats. It says that releasing evidence against suspects would endanger its network of informants.
Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli military spokesman, says Adnan is suspected of acts that "threaten regional security." He would not elaborate.
A military court already rejected an appeal by Adnan on Feb. 13. The Supreme Court will hear his appeal on Thursday, court officials said, though it remains unclear when it will announce its ruling.
Adnan's lawyers said that after 65 days without food, his condition is so poor that they are not sure he will make it past the hearing.
He is losing his hair, his muscles have atrophied and he can only speak in whispers, said Yael Moram, a spokeswoman for Israel's Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition.
Adnan is being held under guard in a hospital in northern Israel. He has been taking liquids infused with electrolytes to keep alive.
In a separate development Monday, Israeli police said vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a Baptist church in Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the words "price tag" were also scrawled on the church property. It is a reference to a practice of Jewish extremists who lash out against the Israeli government for actions against settlers.
Such attacks usually target Muslim and Palestinian sites in the West Bank, but the vandals have recently spread their activities to target Muslim and Christian minorities in Israel.
Rosenfeld said police were searching for the suspects.
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