Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan
Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader AdnanReuters

Israeli authorities have agreed to release Khader Adnan, a Palestinian Arab administrative detainee who has been on a hunger strike for the past 55 days, Haaretz reported on Sunday night.

Adnan will be released in two weeks, and will gradually begin to eat and drink in the meantime, according to the report.

Adnan has been in and out of Israeli prisons over the past several years, and has gone on hunger strike before - most recently in 2012, when he was released from prison after a 66-day hunger strike.

He was arrested as part of a crackdown on terrorists in Judea and Samaria after three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists in Judea last June.

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.

Most recently, a military committee determined that Samer Issawi, a terrorist prisoner who went on a hunger strike in order to pressure Israel to release him, will be sent to 20 years in prison.

Earlier on Sunday, according to Haaretz, Adnan's wife and six children were allowed to visit him in Assaf Harofeh Hospital Sunday for the first time since he began his hunger strike 55 days ago, after his condition took a turn for the worse.

The head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Qadura Fares, claimed that the wife, Randa Adnan, had come to the hospital to visit her husband with the help of the International Red Cross, “and when she saw him and his serious condition, she decided that she isn’t going home until he is released. She understands that his condition is very serious, and that’s why she’s appealing to everyone, including the diplomatic community stationed in the Palestinian Authority and in Israel, to work to end Adnan’s administrative detention.”

“You can’t hold a human being without trial until he dies,” added Fares.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) has said that Adnan is an active member of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, despite the fact that leftist groups have claimed that he is an innocent man imprisoned by Israel without cause.

Adnan is accused of planning attacks as well as openly inciting violence, in calls for suicide bombing attacks that have been caught on film. In fact, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad threatened on the weekend that his group would end the ceasefire agreed upon last summer at the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge  if Adnan dies as a result of his hunger strike.

News of his impending release came a day after his lawyer said Adnan is in critical condition and could die "at any moment".