25 August 2016•Update: 25 August 2016
By Anees Bargouthi
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayed has ended his 71-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison after an agreement was reached with Israeli authorities for his release, a senior Palestinian official told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
“Kayed ended his hunger strike after an agreement was reached to release him from custody on December 12,” Issa Qraqe, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s committee on detainees, said.
Qraqe said the agreement stipulates that Kayed will continue his treatment at the Barazli hospital in Israel and his family will be allowed to visit him.
“Kayed then will continue his administration detention at any prison he chooses and will be released to his home in the village of Assira al-Shamalia in the West Bank,” he said.
Qaraqe went to assert that the battle of the “empty stomachs” doesn’t end after Bilal’s victory.
“There are four other Palestinian detainees who are in an open-ended hunger strike to protest their ongoing administrative detention in Israeli prison,” he said.
“Their health started to deteriorate as they entered their second month of their hunger strike,” he added.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for its part, Kayed’s victory.
“Israeli occupation authorities have failed in their attempts to suppress Kayed and subject him to indefinite detention,” it said.
Kayed, 35, began his open-ended hunger strike on June 15, to protest his ongoing placement in "administrative detention" -- a policy by which prisoners can be held for up to one year without charge or trial.
He was arrested by Israeli authorities in 2002 and sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of being a PFLP member.
Kayed was slated for release on June 13 of this year, but the Israeli authorities -- citing "secret evidence" -- extended his detention for a further six months.
According to official Palestinian figures, over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in Israeli prisons, roughly 700 of whom are being held in administrative detention.
