Palestinian ends 94-day hunger strike after Israel drops detention without charge

Journalist Mohammed al-Qiq, 33, who has been surviving on water alone, will be treated in hospital and allowed family visits

Mohammed al-Qiq has ended his strike after a deal was reached for his release. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Kate Shuttleworth in Jerusalem-Friday 26 February 2016

Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq has ended a 94-day hunger strike in protest against his detention without charge after a deal was reached for Israel to drop his detention.

Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old from Ramallah who had been near death in recent days, will not be released immediately but will remain in an Israeli medical centre in Afula until 21 May, where he will receive treatment.

He will not be transferred to a Palestinian-run hospital in East Jerusalem as previously planned.

Al-Qiq has been surviving on water alone after refusing to take essential minerals.

The head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Qadura Fares, said al-Qiq was allowing doctors to examine him and would start receiving medical treatment.

The deal allows visits from his wife, two children and father – who had been unable to enter Israel to visit him since al-Qiq began starving himself.

The head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, Mohammed Barakeh, said al-Qiq’s “historic three-month hunger strike ended in victory”.

A family friend and advocate for Palestinian rights, Badee Dw.aik, said from celebrations at the home of the extended al-Qiq family: “This is the best news I’ve had all year.”

Al-Qiq began his hunger strike on 25 November last year after he was detained without charge at his home in Ramallah on 21 November.

In February, Israel’s supreme court left al-Qiq in a legal limbo; it suspended his detention without trial but would not let him leave the hospital. Two armed guards sat watch and the windows in his room remained shut in case he tried to escape. The court also said they could not guarantee he would not be placed under further administrative detention once better. He refused the court’s ruling and continued the strike.

Administrative detention is a hangover from British rule in Palestine that allows Israeli authorities to hold terror suspects for six months without charging them or presenting any evidence.

It has become common for Israel to extend the six-month period of detention for many Palestinians.

The agreement reached on Friday resemblethat between Israel and another Palestinian administrative detainee, Mohammed Alan, last year. Aspart of the deal, the state will not renew his detention unless new evidence warrants it.

Advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said al-Qiq had broken medical records, surviving longer without food than any other hunger striker on record.

Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, the equivalent of Britain’s MI5, said al-Qiq, a Hamas supporter, had been involved in “terror activities”. Evidence was presented secretly to the Israeli supreme court, which decided he was a threat to national security.