Israel expelled French-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri on Sunday morning, after holding him without charge since March, The New Arab reported.

Hamouri, 37, had been held under a controversial practice known as administrative detention, which allows suspects to be detained for renewable periods of up to six months.

Hamouri “was deported this morning to France following Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s decision to withdraw his residency status”, the ministry said in a statement.

His family and supporters were expecting the deportation to take place on a Tel Aviv-Paris flight by Israeli airline El Al.

An Israeli military court sentenced Hamouri, who holds French citizenship, to administrative detention in March. It accused him of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – which Israel brands as a “terror” organization – and said he “endangers security in the region”.

Hamouri denies links to the PFLP. He has been arrested and jailed by Israeli authorities on several occasions, including in 2005.

Following that arrest, he was tried and convicted by an Israeli court on charges of plotting to assassinate Ovadia Yosef, a prominent rabbi and spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas political party.

Hamouri was released in December 2011 as part of a prisoner swap with Gaza.

He has always maintained his innocence.

Born in Jerusalem, Hamouri does not have Israeli nationality, but he held a residency permit that Israeli authorities revoked.

Hamouri’s residency was revoked by interior minister Shaked in October 2021. He not only lost his right to reside in Jerusalem, his home city, but also free movement and his ability to work.

Israel, which has illegally occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, regularly revokes the permanent residencies of Palestinians in this section of the city.

(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)