The Israeli army deported a Palestinian from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip on Thursday after two years of detention without trial in an Israeli prison.
Loai Salama, a member of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said Israeli authorities had informed him on Wednesday night he was to be deported to Gaza for four years.
"It is unfair. It is a war crime and a violation of international humanitarian law," he told Reuters.
Israeli security sources said Salama had asked to be moved to Gaza in lieu of remaining in jail.
Israel has deported more than 20 Palestinians from the West Bank to Gaza in recent months, saying that to put them on trial would expose agents who provided information about them.
The Gaza Strip is fenced off from Israel, so the Jewish state sees less of a risk of attack from militants there.
Salama, a resident of the village of Qaryot near the West Bank city of Ramallah, said he had been arrested by an undercover Israeli unit during an army raid into Ramallah two years ago.
"They accused me of being a risk to Israel's security," he said. "That's how they describe people they want to put in jail or deport".

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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