A suspected Hamas terrorist currently incarcerated under administrative detention is in poor health after nearly 50 days on hunger strike,
his wife claimed Monday.

“He is vomiting blood and has lost 25 kilograms (55 pounds),” Mohammed al-Qiq’s wife, Fayha Shalash, told AFP.

She said that if he loses consciousness she believes his doctors will feed him intravenously.

Israel’s parliament approved a law in July allowing prisoners on hunger strike facing death to be force fed, sparking criticism from left-wing NGOs and doctors. It has, however, not yet been invoked. 

Qiq, a 33-year-old reporter for Saudi TV channel Al Majd, was arrested on November 21 at his home in Ramallah, and in mid-December was placed under administrative detention. 

A relic of the British mandate era, such detention allows imprisonment without trial for six-month periods renewable indefinitely.

The terrorist began a hunger strike on November 25, alleging torture, and is currently in the hospital wing of Ramle prison, in central Israel.

He was previously jailed in 2008 for 16 months over student activity linked to the Hamas terrorist group. 

Terrorist prisoners regularly go on hunger strike to protest administrative detention, most recently in the widely publicized case of Islamic Jihad terrorist Mohammed Allan. 

Allan went on a 65-day hunger strike last summer, eventually ending up in the hospital following reports he had suffered brain damage. 

Upon his release from Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon at the end of August, Allan was promptly rearrested, and vowed to renew his hunger strike. He scrapped the idea following contacts with the Israeli military over his release, which eventually occurred in November. 

AFP contributed to this report.