As part of a prisoner exchange deal in 1983 he was released, but immediately re-arrested at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was to be deported to Algeria via Egypt.

The International Committee of the Red Cross strongly condemned the action, and the Human Rights Council in Geneva passed a resolution that called for Abu Ein's immediate release, with only the US and Israel opposing.

[citation needed] In 1985, he was released as a result of another prisoner deal exchange, the Jibril Agreement, to be arrested for the third time under administrative detention a few months later.

[2] On 10 December 2014, Abu Ein took part in a protest march to plant olive trees outside the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah.

[9] An Israeli military medic began administering first aid to an unconscious Abu Ein, but, shortly thereafter, the group of Palestinians present decided to evacuate him to a nearby health clinic in Turmus Ayya.

Video from shortly afterward shows Abu Ein sitting down and holding his chest, before falling unconscious and being treated by an Israeli medic.

While both sides agreed that Abu Ein died from a blockage of the coronary artery due to hemorrhaging, they disagreed on the underlying cause of death.

[12] The Palestinian and Jordanian doctors said wounds to Abu Ein's front teeth and bruises on the tongue, neck and windpipe were indicative of violent acts that led to his death.