The Israeli occupation authorities decided to transfer a Palestinian detainee who has been on hunger strike for nearly 90 days from a civilian hospital inside Israeli occupied territory back to prison, despite his critical condition.

The Palestinian Prisoner Club said in a statement, "The occupation authorities transferred the prisoner Maher Al-Akhras, who had been on hunger strike for 89 days, suddenly from Kaplan Israeli Hospital to Ramla Clinic Prison, and decided to cancel the order to freeze his administrative detention, which was issued by the Supreme Court on September 23.”

"Al-Akhras is under the responsibility of the Prisons Service and administrative detention since now," Yitzhak Guralov, a spokesman for the Israeli Prisons Administration, told AFP.

The Israeli authorities suspect that Al-Akhras, 49, from the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, was associated with the Islamic Jihad movement.

He has been on hunger strike since his arrest on July 27 to protest the Israeli occupation practice of administrative detention, which requires no charges be brought against the detainee.

Palestinians fear that their detention will be extended at the end of the first period of detention. Therefore, many of them go on hunger strikes to protest the arrest and to avoid a potential extension.

Al-Akhras was subjected to administrative detention in Israeli prisons in 2009 for a period of 16 months, as well as administrative detention in 2018.

According to the detainee's lawyer, the Kaplan Hospital administration decided not to keep al-Akhras under its administration, "under the pretext that he refuses treatment and cooperates with the medical staff, and that the large number of its visitors exposes the rest of the patients in the hospital to the risk of infection with Covid-19."

"In light of the hospital administration’s decision, the intelligence and military prosecution decided to renew the administrative detention, to end on November 26, and to transfer it to Ramla Hospital," he said.

Israel initially froze Akhras’ administrative detention, but did not order his immediate release.

The prisoner club held "the occupation authorities fully responsible for the fate of the mute prisoner, who faces a very dangerous health condition, and the possibility of his sudden death."

The head of the health department at the International Committee of the Red Cross, Yves Gibbins, said in a statement Thursday, "From a medical perspective, Mr. Al-Akhras is entering a critical stage."

"After more than 85 days have passed since our hunger strike, we are concerned about the potential and irreversible health consequences," he added.