Lawyers representing hunger-striking detainees at America’s controversial Guantánamo Bay prison have warned they fear some of the protesters could soon die in the ongoing protest.

The news comes as fresh details emerge about conditions at the camp from lawyers visiting clients, letters being written by inmates and phone calls from inside the prison.

They describe dramatic weight loss among many of the hunger strikers, force-feeding, putting protesters in isolation and at least one suicide attempt – though that has been denied by military authorities.

In a letter written by Djamel Ameziane – an Algerian prisoner who has been cleared for release after 11 years of being detained without trial – guards were accused of pressuring prisoners to break the strike. “They are trying to deprive us of everything they can,” he wrote in the letter, extracts of which were seen by the Guardian. Ameziane added that inmates were being disturbed during prayers and that the temperature in cell blocks had been lowered to make inmates less comfortable.

Ameziane said that prisoners were being moved from the communal Camp 6 to the more isolated Camp 5 as a form of punishment for striking. “People who lose consciousness are taken to Camp 5 and some of them are put in isolation. Because of that, two days ago, one prisoner hung himself in his cell. They took him to hospital. I have not heard any news about him since,” Ameziane wrote.

Earlier this week, a spokesman for the US military at the base, Capt Robert Durand, issued a statement in which he insisted there had been “no recent suicide attempts” at the prison. The military also denies it has mistreated any of the prisoners.

But lawyers and human rights advocates are painting a very different picture on what is going on at the prison than military officials. Lawyer Pardiss Kebriaei, who visited the isolated military base on Cuba last week, said that she met two of her clients who were both refusing food. One of them, Yemeni Ghaleb Al-Bihani, told her he had lost 40 pounds since joining the hunger strike which now involves a large majority of the base’s prisoners and began some two months ago. Kebriaei said that Al-Bihani suffered from diabetes and was already on a “high risk” list of detainees who had previously diagnosed serious health problems.

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