Israel offers to deport hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner

Israel offered to deport a hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner to Europe or another UN- member state, local media reported Friday.According to the reports relying on information provided by an unnamed Israeli official, the offer to deport Samer Issawi, who has been on a hunger strike for the past eight months, is part of an attempted compromise over the fate of the high-profile detainee.The 33-year-old prisoner's state had sparked numerous of protests, which resulted in clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli security forces throughout the West Bank in recent months.The report also said that Issawi, who has been recently hospitalized due to his deteriorating condition, denied the proposition through his attorney.The UN and the Palestinian authority did not comment on the proposal as of yet. A spokesperson on behalf of the UN, David Kris, told the Channel 2 news that the European Union did not get an official proposal from Israel yet.Issawi was sentenced to 26 years in prison for a shooting attack, but was released in 2011 as part of the prisoner trade deal that brought about the release of the Israeli kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. He was jailed recently again for violating his parole terms.There are about 4,500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons currently, and Palestinian nationals view them as heroes fighting the Israeli occupation.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had reporetdly told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in his recent visit to the region that Israel would release 123 prisoners jailed prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords, as a gesture on the way to possibly resume the stalled peace talks.