RAMALLAH, West Bank – A Palestinian from the West Bank who has been on a hunger strike in Israeli jails since July 1 was released Sunday under an agreement to resettle in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials.
Ayman Sharawna, 36, a resident of Dura, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, was taken Sunday evening from a hospital in southern Israel straight to Gaza, where he was quickly taken to a hospital for further treatment. He was reported to be in poor health after months of not eating.
Qaddoura Faris, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a support group for prisoners, said Sharawna reached a deal with the Israeli authorities to end his hunger strike and to be effectively confined to the Gaza Strip for 10 years.
The alternative, the group said, was the possibility of a long prison sentence handed down by a military court scheduled to convene Monday. The court could have ordered him to serve the 28 years remaining in his sentence at the time of his release from prison in the October 2011 prisoners exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.
