A Palestinian prisoner died Tuesday in mysterious circumstances, just hours after he was moved to the hospital, according to the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners Affairs.
Issa Qaraqe, head of the committee, said 35-year-old Raed al-Jabari died at Soroka Hospital hours after he was moved from Eshel prison, adding that al-Jabari did not suffer from any diseases.
Holding the Israeli authorities accountable for al-Jabari’s death, Qaraqe called for formation of an international committee to investigate the controversial death.
Raed al-Jabari was from the southern West Bank city of Hebron. A general strike for Wednesday has already been declared in Hebron and depending on when a probable autopsy is conducted, it is expected that al-Jabari’s funeral will be held tomorrow.
Qaraqe stated that al-Jabari was “tortured while being transferred” from Ofer prison to Eshel jail.
Israeli prison authorities released a statement saying al-Jabari hung himself. Notification was made to the Red Cross, and a prison services’ investigatory committee will be charged with examining this incident.
Al-Jabari was detained on July 26 when he turned himself in after hitting several Israelis with his car in the Bethlehem-area settlement bloc of Gush Etzion. He told Israeli forces that the incident was an accident. The Israeli press, however, is currently referring to al-Jabari as a ‘security prisoner’, the term used in Israel for Palestinian political prisoners.
Al-Jabari’s death comes one week after Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Hussein Rabee was transferred to a hospital after undergoing torture at Israel’s Russian Compound detention center, according to the Palestinian Authority Prisoner Affairs Committee.
And 33-year-old Arafat Jaradat died in February 2013 following torture by Israel whilst under interrogation, according to the Palestinian forensic expert involved in Jaradat’s autopsy. Mass protests broke out throughout the West Bank and hundreds of Palestinians were injured in the weeks following his death in clashes with Israeli military forces.