Palestinian hunger striker freed

A Palestinian detainee who was on an extended hunger strike in an Israeli prison has arrived in Gaza after a deal was reached with Israeli officials.

Ayman Sharawna, who started the protest action in July, was released Sunday under the agreement which exiled him from the Israel-occupied West Bank to the Gaza Strip for 10 years.

Sharawna is one of four Palestinian prisoners — held without formal charge in an Israeli jail — who have been refusing food for months over the conditions of their detention by Israel.

He was previously released in the October 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal that led to the freeing by Hamas of captured Israeli trooper Gilad Shalit, but was rearrested in January 2012 for what Israeli officials said was “violation of the terms of his release.”

The plight of Palestinian prisoners and the recent death of another inmate in an Israeli jail have sparked angry protests across the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank over the past weeks.

Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old father of two, died on February 24, 2013 after being interrogated by Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet, also known as the Shabak.

Jaradat was arrested on February 18 on suspicion of being involved in hurling stones at Israeli troopers at a demonstration in al-Khalil (Hebron).

Israel claims that Jaradat had died of cardiac arrest, a claim Palestinians deny.

On February 24, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqea revealed that he had been tortured before his death.

The Palestinian minister said Jaradat’s autopsy showed torture that caused fractures in his body and skull, while his heart was in good condition.

More than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons, many of them without charge or trial.