Jordanian prisoner in Israel suspends hunger strike after 20 days

AMMAN — A Jordanian imprisoned in Israeli has suspended his hunger strike after 20 consecutive days as government efforts continue to secure his release, Palestine's Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a statement released Thursday.

Head of the commission, Issa Qaraqe, said Jordan's Ambassador to Palestine Khaled Shawabkeh visited the prisoner, 40-year-old Abdullah Abu Jaber, at Eshel Prison in Beersheba and asked him to suspend his strike and give the government a chance to secure his release and bring him to Jordan.

Abu Jaber will suspend his strike until September 6, the statement quoted Qaraqe as saying, noting that the prisoner wants to spend the remainder of his 15-year sentence (five years) in Jordan. So far, Abu Jaber's parents have visited him only twice, according to the statement.