Israeli authorities on Sunday freed a Palestinian Arab terrorist prisoner, two weeks after striking a release deal that ended his 131-day hunger strike, The Associated Press reports. Kayed Fasfous, 32, had remained in an Israeli hospital since ending his strike on November 23. He was one of six hunger strikers protesting Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which allows terror suspects to be held indefinitely without charge. Israeli authorities arrested him over suspected ties to Hamas. The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group representing former and current prisoners, confirmed to AP that Fasfous had returned home through a military checkpoint near Hebron on Sunday afternoon. Later, online footage showed the former prisoner in a wheelchair celebrating his return to his southern hometown of Dura. Jailed terrorists have several times in the past used the method of hunger strikes in order to pressure Israel to release them or improve the conditions of their imprisonment. Israel has 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 of 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. Last month, Hamas terrorist Moked al-Qawasmi ended a 113-day hunger strike after an agreement was reached according to which he will be released in February. At times, the terrorists were found to be secretly eating during the hunger strike. A prominent example of this was in 2017, when the Israel Police released footage of archterrorist Marwan Barghouti, who was caught eating in secret while maintaining the pretenses of his own hunger strike. Related articles: Terrorist organization targets Ben Gvir Ben Gvir 'visits' hospitalized terrorist Hunger striking terrorist to be released Hunger striking terrorist determined to continue the fight
