Palestinian football player Mahmoud Sarsak is greeted by supporters as he arrives in an ambulance at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 10 July 2012. (Photo: AFP – Mahmud Hams)
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The longest Palestinian hunger striker in history was released from an Israeli jail on Tuesday following 92 days without food in protest at his detention.
Mahmoud Sarsak greeted family and well-wishers in Gaza after three years in Israeli custody without charges or trial.
During his hunger strike, the 25-year-old member of the Palestinian national soccer team shed nearly half his weight. He ended the fast last month as part of a deal for his release.
Sarsak is currently being treated at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, a spokesperson for the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer confirmed to Al-Akhbar.
Sarsak's case received international attention with the world football body FIFA throwing its support behind the Palestinian player.
Three other Palestinians remain on hunger strike in Israeli jails, the most severe of whom is Akram Rikhawi, who has been refusing food since April 12
In a joint statement released last Thursday, Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) warned that Rikhawi's health was deteriorating rapidly.
The statement said a PHR-Israel doctor had discovered an "alarming deterioration of Akram’s asthma, which continues to be unstable," adding that he believed "Akram has been given very high doses of
steroids as treatment, which can cause severe long-term and irreversible damage."
Rikhawi is currently serving a nine-year sentence for supporting suicide bombers, a charge he allegedly confessed to after being tortured.
Addameer said during his interrogation Rikhawi had been stripped naked and put in a room with dogs to scare him into confession.
Over 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails went on a mass hunger strike earlier this year to protest Israel's draconian administrative detention policy, as well as harsh conditions imposed on them during imprisonment.
The policy, dating back to the British mandate era, allows Israel to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the policy as a violation of international humanitarian law.
The mass strike ended in May when Israel agreed to stop the practice of indefinite detention without charge.
But Israel breached that agreement the following month by renewing the detention of Hassan Safadi for another six months.
Safadi had previously been on a hunger strike for 71 days before renewing his campaign 20 days ago in protest at his continued detention.
(Al-Akhbar, AP)
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Uprooted Palestinian 
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