Photo shows Palestinian prisoner Kayed Fasfous at Kaplan Medical Center following serious deterioration of his health. (Via Wafa news agency)
Ramallah, December 6 (RHC)-- Palestinian detainee, Kayed Fasfous, has finally walked out of an Israeli jail and returned home to his family, after a prolonged hunger strike. He spent more than 18 months in prison without a trial as he refused to eat for 131 days in protest.
The 32-year-old ended his strike last month, after Israel agreed to end his administrative detention.
Facing widespread international criticism, the regime has also agreed to free several other Palestinians, who’ve been on lengthy strikes. The United Nations has expressed concern about the lives of the hunger strikers. Israel uses "administrative detention" to lock up Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely. But such practice is illegal under international law.
On Saturday, Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh said more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees had been freed from Israeli jails in the Wafaa al-Aharar (True Promise of Free Men) prisoner swap deal with Israel in 2011.
Ismail Haniyeh says the issue of the Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails is a top priority for the resistance movement. Addressing a ceremony on Palestinian detainees, martyrs, and injured on the third day of the "12th Pioneers of al-Quds Conference," he said the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is a top priority.
Haniyeh stressed that the four Israeli troops captured in the besieged Gaza Strip would not be released unless the Palestinians behind bars in Israeli prisons were released in return. Last week, Haniyeh said Israeli prisoners in Gaza would not see the light of day until the Palestinian inmates held in Israeli jails enjoy “the sun of freedom.”
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails. Hundreds have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding Palestinian inmates without trial or charge. Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.
