Palestinian inmate ends 71-day hunger strike

NABLUS, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian imprisoned in Israel without trial has ended a 71- day hunger strike, his family told AFP on Wednesday.

Suha Kayed said her brother Bilal, 35, had called off his protest after Israeli authorities said his current six-month term of internment would not be extended.

“He has ended his strike after an agreement to end his detention,” she told AFP from her home in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Bilal Kayed’s lawyer, Farah Bayadsi, confirmed the deal.

“He suspended his hunger strike after we consulted with him and he gave his approval,” he told AFP.

Kayed was meant to be freed from prison in June after serving a 14- and- a-half-year sentence for activities in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, labelled a terrorist organisation by Israel, the European Union and the United States.

Instead, Israeli authorities ordered that he remain in custody for a further six months.

A PFLP spokesman told AFP that under the agreement he would be freed on December 12.

Amnesty International has called on Israel to either charge or release him and the United Nations says it is “deeply concerned” at his deteriorating health.

“On 13 June 2016, the day of his scheduled release, a sixmonth administrative detention order was issued against him on unspecified security grounds and relying on secret evidence,” Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday.

“Mr. Kayed is reported to be in a critical condition and doctors have informed him that he may suffer irreversible damage to his health,” she said. — AFP