An Israeli-held Palestinian prisoner on a life-threatening hunger strike has agreed to end his protest in return for his release, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Samer Issawi, who is serving a sentence for militant activity and has intermittently refused food since August 2012, would be freed eight months from when he ends his strike, Jawad Boulos told AFP. The 33-year-old, currently in critical condition in a hospital near Tel Aviv, began taking vitamins again late on Monday after the agreement was reached with the authorities, Boulos said.

An Israeli court handed a Palestinian hunger striker eight months on Thursday for violating his parole, but though he has already served most of his sentence, his fate still lies with a military court. At Jerusalem Magistrates Court, Samer Issawi, 33, was convicted of breaching the terms of his early release from jail in October 2011 by taking his car to be fixed at a garage in the West Bank, his lawyer Andre Rosenthal told AFP. "He admitted going to the West Bank and he was sentenced to eight months," he said.