Palestinian prisoner released in Israel after hunger strike for 94 days

Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian prisoner who had been in a hunger strike for 94 days under an administrative imprisonment in an Israeli jail, officials said.

Mohamed al-Qiq, a Palestinian TV reporter from Hebron in southern West Bank, was arrested and under administrative detention on Nov. 21, 2015. After a few weeks, he went on an open-ended hunger strike in protest to his arrest.

After al-Qiq was in hunger strike for 94 days, during which his health had critically deteriorated, Israel reached an agreement with him through his lawyer to release him on Thursday for ending his hunger strike.

"Israel only responds to the demands of the prisoners in its jails when the prisoners have powerful determination," al-Qiq told reporters as he crossed an Israeli checkpoint near Hebron.

He went on saying that his release is a "great victory of the prisoners against the ill treatment, the humiliation measures and the unfair detention of the Palestinian prisoners."

Al-Qiq, who looked skinny, was warmly received in Hebron by his family, relatives, friends and neighbors.

Over the past four years, dozens of Palestinian prisoners went on several hunger strikes and managed to get released after being badly treated by the Israeli prisons services. Endit