Hawzah News Agency –Nasser Abu Hmeid, a critically ill Palestinian freedom fighter held in Israel, is in a coma for the 12th day due to acute pneumonia, the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Commission said today.

Abu Hmeid, 49, from Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, entered into a coma 12 days ago after suffering a severe inflammation of the lungs as a result of bacterial contamination.

Hasan Abed Rabbo, from the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Commission, told WAFA today that Abu Hmeid remains critical and is attached to artificial respiration at the Israeli hospital of Barzilai while he is not responding to medication.

He said the commission had petitioned Israeli courts to force the Israel Prison Services to provide them with more information about Abu Hmeid’s health and to allow his family to visit him but so far there has been no response.

Last week, the family of Abu Hmeid appealed to all parties of concern to take urgent and effective action to save the life of their son, as well as on the masses of our people to continue their popular support to press the occupation to release him as he’s facing an imminent risk of death.

The Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission had also urged all human rights and international institutions to urgently intervene and pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to release the Abu Hamid, who is battling cancer.

The Commission warned that the prisoner Abu Hamid was battling death as a result of his suffering from the consequences of a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in the lungs he underwent last October, when the occupation then returned him to the prison before he recovered.