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RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- An Israeli military court on Sunday renewed the administrative detention of a prisoners representative who helped broker last month's deal to improve detainees' conditions.

Ofer court extended the detention without charge of Sheikh Bassam al-Saadi, an Islamic Jihad leader from West Bank city Jenin, for a further six months, Prisoners Society lawyer Jawad Boulos said.

Al-Saadi played an important role in reaching the deal with Israeli prison authorities to end a mass hunger strike in exchange for detainees' demands, society chief Qadura Fares said. He attended the signing of the agreement in Ramle prison hospital on May 14.

Prisoners hoped the deal would curtail the practice of detention without charge, but Fares warned at the time that Israel only committed not to renew detention orders without new information requiring them to do so.

"Who can check this new information ... no one can be sure," he told Ma'an at the time.

Boulos said he understands Sunday's decision will be the last time al-Saadi's detention is renewed. The political leader should be released in November unless new information is revealed about his case, he said.

But he called the decision "disappointing," noting that the judge said Israeli intelligence officers denied there was a commitment not to renew al-Saadi's detention.

The intelligence officials told the judge they would decide on each case of administrative detention individually, according to the degree of threat the individual poses to the Israeli public, Boulos added.

Last week, officials said more than 25 prisoners have either been rearrested after their release or had their administrative detention terms renewed since the hunger strike deal.

Al-Saadi was detained from the Jenin refugee camp in May 2011, shortly after his release from Israeli prison after completing an eight-year jail term.

In September, Israeli forces detained his 20-year-old son Suheib Bassam al-Saadi.

The Islamic Jihad leader was a signatory to the 2006 Palestinian Prisoners Document, a call for national unity between sparring political factions.
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