A lawyer for an Al-Jazeera journalist imprisoned by Israel says his client admitted having contact with the Islamic militant group Hamas and will be released under a plea bargain.

Samer Allawi, Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Afghanistan, was arrested in August by Israeli soldiers when he was on his way back to Kabul after visiting family in the West Bank. He was held in an Israeli military prison for over a month.

Open gallery view Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Afghanistan Samer Allawi. Credit: Facebook

Attorney Salim Wakim says that under the plea bargain reached with the Israeli military, Allawi said he was asked by Hamas members to report negatively about the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Wakim says his client refused.

Under the deal, Allawi will pay a $1,400 fine.

A spokeswoman for Israel's prison authority confirmed the impending release Monday.

Allawi, 46, was arrested while trying to return from the West Bank village of Sebastia, where his family lives, to Jordan. He holds a Jordanian passport and a Palestinian identity card, and was arrested at the Allenby Crossing, where he entered Israel three weeks earlier.