Former Palestinian hunger striker Bilal Kayid released

Israeli authorities released former hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayid this afternoon, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said.

Kayid, who went on hunger strike in June after he was sentenced to administrative detention on the daye he was scheduled for release from prison after serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence, returned to his home in the village of Asira Al-Shamaliya in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus.

After refusing medical treatment, vitamins and salt supplements, living off only water for 71 days, Kayid suspended his hunger strike in late August after reaching an agreement with Israeli authorities to end his administrative detention and release him on 12 December.

Kayid, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was originally detained in 2002 for alleged involvement in the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades – the armed wing of the PFLP.

He was transferred between several prisons during his 14-and-a-half-year sentence and was frequently placed in solitary confinement, the last stretch of which left him in isolation for nearly a year at Ramon prison after Israeli authorities learned of his leadership activities among Palestinians inside Israeli prisons.

Rights groups have claimed that Israel’s administrative detention policy has been used as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists and journalists.

According to prisoner rights group Addameer, there were 7,000 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel as of October, 720 of whom were administrative detainees.