Israel briefly re-arrests Palestinian hunger striker

Rasa - Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan has been re-arrested by Israeli forces for several hours a day after he was freed from an Israeli jail following about two months of avoiding food.

News ID: 2945

Date: 14 July 2015 - 13:47

RNA - The veteran hunger striker was reportedly heading into the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds to participate in a religious ceremony on Monday in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound when he was arrested.

“Khader Adnan was arrested because he had no right to be in the Old City of Jerusalem (al-Quds) where free access is allowed to West Bank Palestinians only aged 50 and above, and he is just 37,” said Israel Police spokesperson Luba Samri.

The 37-year-old detainee was taken to a police station in the city. However, media reports said that Adnan was released after several hours.

Adnan was set free early on Sunday from an Israeli prison after weeks of staging a hunger strike in protest at the Israeli practice of the so-called administrative detention.

Adnan began his hunger strike on April 6 to protest the Israeli practice of administrative detention, under which Palestinians are kept behind bars without charge or trial for months or years. He ended his hunger strike on June 28 after Israel agreed to release him in two weeks.

He had been jailed for over a year without charge or trial.

Adnan, a father of six from the West Bank city of Jenin, was abducted in July 2014 as part of an Israeli abduction campaign across the occupied West Bank.

Earlier, in 2012, he had staged a 66-day-long hunger strike before being released the same year.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Israel detained 383 Palestinians across the West Bank in December 2014.

Over 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly incarcerated in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps.

R111/108/C/