Prison (illustration)
Prison (illustration)iStock

Bilal Al-Kayed, a senior terrorist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who is imprisoned in Israel and has been on a hunger strike for 26 days, has set preconditions for his agreement to end the hunger strike.

Kayed has in the past served a prison sentence of 14 years over involvement in terrorism and, at the end of his prison term was issued an administrative detention order due to his continued terrorist activity while he was in an Israeli jail.

Kayed has already rejected an Israeli proposal to be released immediately on the condition that he leave Judea and Samaria.

In talks with prison authorities, he offered to stop the hunger strike if the authorities agree to end his administrative detention after four months and allow his relatives to visit him in prison.

Kayed stressed that the offer is valid until Thursday of this week and if it is not accepted, he will not be ready to discuss other proposals.

Jailed terrorists have often used hunger strikes as 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.

Most recently, Palestinian Arab journalist Mohammed al-Qiq was released from prison after a hunger strike. Before him, the most famous case of a terrorist who went on a hunger strike and was ultimately freed was that of Mohammed Allan, who was freed by Israel at the beginning of November 2015.