RAMALLAH, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Israel released early on Sunday a Palestinian prisoner after he went on hunger strike for 55 days in Israeli jails in protest at his detention for one year without charge.

A security official in the Palestinian liaison office told Xinhua that the Israeli army handed Khader Adnan to the Palestinian side after he was released near his town Araba, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Randa Musa, Adnan's wife, told Xinhua that she received a phone call from her husband to tell her about his release. She said that Adnan will be publically received in his town later on Sunday.

Adnan, 37, a member of Islamic Jihad, stopped his hunger strike on June 29 as he was in an Israeli hospital following a deal reached with the Israeli authorities to release him before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

He started his hunger strike on May 5 in protest at keeping him under administrative detention without a trial.