Arabs protest for Khader Adnan on Temple Mount
Arabs protest for Khader Adnan on Temple MountSliman Khader/Flash 90

Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan ended a 56-day hunger strike on Sunday after Israel agreed to release him, his lawyer and the Palestinian Prisoners Club of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced.

Adnan, 37, has been in prison for a year after being arrested last summer during the IDF crackdown on terrorists in Judea and Samaria which followed the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens by Hamas terrorists.

Officials and activists had recently pressed for Adnan's release, stating that he could die "at any moment."

"Khader Adnan ended his hunger strike last night, after an agreement was reached to release him on July 12," his lawyer Jawad Boulos said, adding that doctors at the Israeli hospital he was transferred to were considered ways to start feeding him.

In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoners Club also confirmed that Adnan had broken his hunger strike.

Despite being presented by leftist groups as an innocent man being held with no reason, Adnan is accused of planning attacks and has openly called for suicide bombing attacks in calls caught on film. A senior Islamic Jihad terrorist in Gaza threatened over the weekend that his group would end the ceasefire with Israel agreed upon last if Adnan died as a result of his hunger strike.

An Israeli official confirmed that Adnan would be set free on July 12, telling AFP the deal was made possible after Adnan withdrew his demand that Israel never hold him in administrative detention in the future.

The official noted Adnan's deteriorating health and the requests of the International Committee of the Red Cross and PA to release him as contributing to the decision to free him.

Adnan previously carried out a hunger strike that lasted 66 days in 2012, and in that case as well he was released at the end of the strike, during which he had ingested vitamins and salt. This time, he refused to swallow anything except water.

Arab terrorist prisoners have turned hunger striking into a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Israel to release them out of fear for their lives. Israel has several times in the past caved to the pressure and released some hunger strikers.

Some 1,550 Palestinian Arabs imprisoned in Israel ended a hunger strike in May 2012, in exchange for a package of measures which would allow visits from relatives in Gaza and the transfer of detainees out of solitary confinement.

AFP contributed to this report.