Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan
Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader AdnanReuters

Israel released a Palestinian terrorist prisoner who has been hunger-striking in a public campaign for his release, a spokesperson said Sunday.

"Khader Adnan, who was in administrative detention, has been released," Sivan Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service (IPS), told AFP.

Khader Adnan has been portrayed as an innocent man imprisoned by Israel without cause by radical leftist groups, but he is in fact a well-known leader of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group in the Judea and Samaria region. He is accused of planning attacks as well as openly inciting violence, in calls for suicide bombing attacks that have been caught on film.

Adnan, 37, had been held for a year under administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without charge for renewable periods of six months indefinitely. 

His hunger strike, which had brought him near death by the time it concluded last month, had sparked warnings from the Palestinian Authority (PA) government that it held Israel responsible for his fate.

He had previously gone on hunger strike for 66 days in 2012 to protest against his detention. He was released at the end of the protest, during which he had ingested vitamins and salt. This time, he refused to swallow anything except water.

Adnan ended his hunger strike on June 28 after Israel agreed to release him, at which point he was transferred to an Israeli hospital.