(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Israel released the speaker of the Palestinian parliament yesterday, after almost a year in prison following an army crackdown over the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers.
Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was arrested on June 16, 2014 as Israel staged a massive manhunt for three teenagers who were snatched from a road in the southern West Bank by Palestinian militants linked to Hamas.
During the search, which lasted until June 30 when their bodies were found, Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians, most of them members of Hamas.
The crackdown-the biggest in a decade-triggered a surge of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the Islamist movement's stronghold, which ultimately led to a 50-day war in and around the coastal enclave, the third in six years.
According the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners' Club, 12 of the 130 MPs in the PLC were being held by Israel, including Dweik.
The council has not met since 2007 following a major rift between the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and its Hamas rival, which saw the Islamist movement forcibly expelling Fatah loyalists from Gaza.
The Palestinian government yesterday warned that it held Israel responsible for hunger-striking prisoner Khadar Adnan "in danger of dying" after 36 days of protest.
"Israel is entirely responsible for the life of prisoners in administrative detention," it said in a statement, referring to a procedure under which Israel can hold Palestinian prisoners indefinitely for renewable six-month periods.
Adnan was "in danger of dying", it added.
The prisoner was hospitalised several days ago, and he is continuing his protest against the conditions of his imprisonment, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
Two other prisoners are also staging a hunger strike-Mohamed Rashdan, who is protesting against being deprived of family visits, and Ayman al-Sharbati, an East Jerusalem resident placed in solitary confinement.
Administrative detention is a procedure dating back to the British Mandate
of Palestine (1920-1948) under which prisoners can be held for six-month periods, which can be indefinitely renewed by court order.
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