Imprisoned Palestinian football player Sarsak agrees to end fast

Mahmoud al-Sarsak, 25, was detained under Israel’s “unlawful combatants” law, and is the latest of a number of Palestinian prisoners to end fasts after winning guarantees of release from their Israeli jailers. “There has been a written agreement with the Israeli side for him to be released on July 10 and to be moved for medical treatment to a civilian hospital,” Sarsak’s lawyer Mohammed Jabarin told Reuters. “There had been a substantial deterioration in his health and he needs special care. He will not return to prison,” Jabarin added.

Israel’s Prisons Authority had no comment. Israel detained Sarsak on suspicion of having ties with the Islamic Jihad militant group. He was held under a law introduced after it pulled troops out of Gaza in 2005 which permitted Israel to jail “unlawful combatants” without trial. He denies the allegation, and has never been formally charged. Sarsak, who has played for the Palestinian national team, was detained while he was leaving Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave ruled by Hamas, to travel through Israel to join teammates in the occupied West Bank.

Sarsak began his hunger strike a few months ago to protest his detention, but has intermittently ingested fluids such as milk and a glucose drip, Jabarin and Israeli officials said.

Israel struck a deal last month with representatives of 1,600 Palestinian prisoners to end hunger strikes of up to 27 days, agreeing to demands to stop solitary confinements, allow family visits and improve prison conditions.

Israel has also freed three other prisoners in the past few months, ending lengthy hunger strikes on their part.

The Palestinian Football Association had raised Sarsak’s case with international football authorities and appealed to them to prevent Israel from hosting the European under-21 championships next year, but the request was rejected on Monday.