WordBulletin

Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner who went on a 66-day hunger strike over his detention without charge by Israel, has been released following a deal reached in February.

Prior to his release on Tuesday, at least 1,200 Palestinian inmates of Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike, as rallies across the occupied territories marked "Prisoners' Day".

The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Ministry says there are about 4,700 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, including 319 being held without charge in so-called "administrative detention".

Israeli authorities freed Adnan on Tuesday after he refused food from December 18 until February 21 in protest over what he said was a violent and humiliating arrest at his home in the occupied West Bank.

The detention of Adnan, a 33-year-old baker who was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security" due to his alleged leadership role in Islamic Jihad, an armed Palestinian group, triggered a series of protests calling for his release across Palestinian territories.

Earlier this year, an Israeli military court ordered that Adnan be placed for four months in administrative detention. Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.

Human rights groups criticised the conditions in which he was being held at Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, where he was shackled to his bed by chains on both legs and one arm.