The IDF Central Command froze on Friday the administrative detention of Islamic Jihad terrorist Khalil Awawdeh, citing the fact that his life is in immediate danger, Haaretz reported.
However, Central Command said that if Awawdeh leaves the hospital, he would be again held in detention.
Awawdeh is no longer under watch and can see visitors, but his not allowed to leave the hospital. His attorney, Ahlam Haddad, later said that he would not end his hunger strike until he's completely freed from detention.
Earlier on Friday, Haddad petitioned the Supreme Court to have Awawdeh released from administrative arrest, as his condition deteriorated after 170 days on hunger strike.
In the petition, Haddad asked the court to issue an order requiring the state to explain why it won’t release Awawdeh, who is held without charges, and to provide complete information on his client's medical condition.
Awawdeh has been on a hunger strike since the start of July to protest his detention. He was admitted to Assaf Harofeh Hospital on August 11.
Awawdeh’s name made headlines when the Islamic Jihad demanded his release as part of the conditions for the ceasefire that ended the IDF’s Operation Breaking Dawn.
While the Islamic Jihad claimed that Israel agreed to release both Awawdeh and Bassam Al-Saadi, the group’s leader in Judea and Samaria who was arrested before the start of the operation, Israeli leaders have denied the claim.
Jailed terrorists have more than once used the method of hunger strikes in order to pressure Israel to release them or improve the conditions of their imprisonment.
Israel has several times in the past caved to the pressure and released some hunger strikers.
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.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)