Palestinian ends hunger strike in detention deal

A PALESTINIAN prisoner has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike after Israeli authorities pledged to cut his detention.

Khader Adnan Mousa, 33, a former spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group, had become a symbol of defiance against Israel’s policy of holding suspects without charge.

His lawyers struck a deal with the Israeli government to end a tense stand-off just before the Supreme Court was due to consider his appeal.

Mousa, who is based in the West Bank, was not immediately freed from administrative detention, a practice instituted by the British in Palestine, according to which suspects can be held for renewable, six-month periods without their lawyers being able to see the evidence against them. Mousa’s hunger strike is the longest by a Palestinian prisoner. Fears he might die forced Israel to agree his four-month detention would not be extended provided no “new” evidence emerges against him. Israel also agreed to trim his detention by three weeks.