Israel Frees Palestinian Prisoner Following Hunger Strike

Almost died from his refusal to eat

Israel freed a Palestinian prisoner from jail on Monday, 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.

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.