- Title: JERUSALEM: Israel frees Palestinian prisoner after hunger-strike deal
- Date: 23rd December 2013
- Summary: JERUSALEM (DECEMBER 23, 2013) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) CAR DECKED IN PALESTINIAN FLAGS AND POSTERS OF SAMER AL-ISSAWI WHO HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED FROM AN ISRAELI PRISON AFTER A LENGTHY HUNGER STRIKE ARRIVING IN THE VILLAGE OF ISSAWIYA YOUNG PEOPLE CLAPPING AND CHEERING DURING WELCOMING CEREMONY FOR AL-ISSAWI AL-ISSAWI BEING CARRIED ON PEOPLE'S SHOULDERS DURING WELCOMING FES
- Embargoed: 7th January 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8D48M4Y019BYO2J3DAGNUFAZ8
- Story Text: Israel freed a Palestinian prisoner from jail on Monday (December 23), completing a deal agreed earlier this year in exchange for him halting a lengthy hunger strike that almost killed him.
Samer al-Issawi stopped his eight-month, on-off fast last April. His confinement had stoked weeks of protests in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hundreds of residents of his home town cheered and chanted as he was carried onto people's shoulders during the welcoming ceremony held in the village of al Issawiya.
"I feel like I'm flying in the skies of Palestine with Samer, and we pass along every city that supported him. We pass by there and we thank it, and we tell the people there, thank God, just like Samer was freed and was victorious, we would all be victorious and we would be able to retrieve Palestine and live in it in peace and security like the rest of the world," his mother, Um Rafat, told Reuters Television.
Israel convicted Issawi of shooting at an Israeli bus in 2002 but released him in 2011 along with more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Islamist militants had held hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Issawi was re-arrested in July 2012 after Israel said he violated the terms of his release by crossing from his native East Jerusalem to the West Bank, and ordered him to return to jail until 2029 - his original release date.
Citing security concerns, Israel restricts Palestinian movement between East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Middle East war, annexing East Jerusalem in a move that has not won international recognition.
He was driven from the prison to a brief welcoming ceremony near Jericho in the West Bank, and from there to his home in Issawiya, a village adjoining East Jerusalem.
Israel holds some 5,000 Palestinians it accuses of committing or planning violence against it. It has recently agreed to release 104 under U.S.-brokered understandings that paved the way for the revival of peace talks.
Half that number has already been freed, another 26 inmates are set to go free before the end of the year, and a final group of 26 will be released later. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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