At the behest of his elderly mother, Alan Gross has suspended his hunger strike in a Cuban prison after a week.

“Alan’s mother asked him to stop the fast,” Jill Zuckman, the spokeswoman for the family, said. “He agreed to do that [April 13].”

Gross, 64, a Jewish American subcontractor for the State Department who was arrested in Cuba in 2009, told his lawyer in a weekly call April 11 that he planned further protest actions, Zuckman said, although he did not elaborate. He had launched his fast April 3.

Gross’ mother, who is suffering from cancer, turned 92 on April 15. — jta