Israel pledges to free Palestinian, hunger strike ends

A Palestinian activist held without trial by Israel agreed on Tuesday to end his 66-day hunger strike after Israeli authorities promised to release him in April, but Israel will avoid judicial review of the detention policy. "There is a deal. (Khader Adnan) will stop his hunger strike. They will not extend his administrative detention and he will be free on April 17," an Israeli Justice Ministry spokeswoman said. Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, confirmed Adnan would be released on that date and end his hunger strike now. Adnan, 33, has been refusing to eat since mid-December and doctors voiced fears about his deteriorating health. "Detention issue unresolved" Israel's High Court, in light of the agreement, cancelled at the last minute a scheduled hearing of the Islamic Jihad member's appeal against his imprisonment, avoiding a high-profile examination of the issue of detention without trial. The court has already for decades sided with the government on the detention without trial. Human rights groups have condemned the measure and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement on Saturday saying she was following Adnan's case with "great concern". She reiterated "the EU's long-standing concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge". Adnan has become a potent symbol of protest against Israel's practice of holding suspects without trial. The continued detention of the 33-year-old Palestinian from the occupied West Bank had led to global anger, with protesters clashing with police on Tuesday in the latest such incident in the occupied West Bank. Israel arrested Adnan, a baker by profession, on December 17 near the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Israel accuses him of being a spokesman for the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad. Adnan's protest has seen him break the record for the longest hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner, with the previous record set in 1976 when a group of prisoners refused food for 45 days. Married for seven years, Adnan has two small daughters, Maali, four and 18-month-old Bissan. His wife, Randa, is five months pregnant with a baby boy. Adnan's case had put a spotlight on Israel's so-called "administrative detention" that enables it to hold Palestinians without trial or charge indefinitely. A local rights group, al Haq, said 315 Palestinians were being detained under the edict.