RAMALLAH, August 9, 2012 (WAFA) – Israel Thursday released former striking Prisoner Bilal Diab, 27, who went on a hunger strike for 78 days to protest his administrative detention.

Many Palestinians received Diab at al-Jalama checkpoint near Jenin before taking him to his home town, Kufr Raee.

Diab was first arrested in 2003 and was sentenced to 80 months. He was rearrested in 2010 and placed in administrative detention until his release.

Diab told WAFA after his release that the message he carries from prisoners of Shata and other prisons is to end the Palestinian division and to secure release of all prisoners, especially the longest-serving ones.

M.H./M.S.