Israel set to free Palestinian hunger striker

After holding him for a year without trial, Israel is to free a Palestinian detainee Wednesday who survived a two-month hunger strike, the prison service said.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in September that the IDF Military Prosecutor guaranteed that it wouldn’t extend administrative detention for Mohammed Allaan, a member of the Islamic Jihad terror group, beyond November 4.

The Israeli military confirmed the report and said that his release was contingent upon him not renewing his hunger strike.

Allaan was arrested in November 2014 and held under administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without trial for six-month periods renewable indefinitely.

In June, he began a two-month hunger strike that brought him near death and heightened tensions in the West Bank.

Israel’s High Court suspended his detention on August 19 as he was given medical treatment following his hunger strike, which twice left him in a coma.

His detention was renewed in September after his health improved and he was discharged from hospital.

Allaan then resumed his hunger strike, only to call it off two days later.

Islamic Jihad says the 31-year-old lawyer from Einabus, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, is a member.

Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency says that before his arrest, Allaan “was in contact with an Islamic Jihad terrorist” with the aim of carrying out large-scale attacks.

He was previously imprisoned from 2006 to 2009 for allegedly seeking to recruit suicide bombers and aiding wanted Palestinians.

Allaan’s release comes amid a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel which has left 11 Israelis and 68 Palestinians dead since the start of October.