Israel re-arrests Palestinian teen freed in prisoner swap
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) — Israeli authorities have put a Palestinian teen back behind bars after he was released in a prisoner swap deal in late November, according to a Palestinian prisoners group.
“The Israeli occupation authorities re-arrested teen Yousef Abdullah al-Khatib, 17, from Jericho city (eastern occupied West Bank), today,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement, adding that al-Khatib had been summoned by Israeli intelligence and pressured to turn himself in.
The incident marks the first re-arrest of a Palestinian freed in a prisoner swap between Israel and Gaza-based resistance group Hamas.
The prisoners’ group said that al-Khatib’s arrest was a clear violation of the deal.
It noted that al-Khatib had been jailed without charge or trial under Israel’s policy of administrative detention.
It urged mediators Qatar and Egypt to pressure Israeli authorities not to re-arrest released prisoners and to end their persecution.
During a week-long suspension of attacks in Gaza between November 24 and December 1, Hamas released 105 civilians held in Gaza, including 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners. They were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.
The ongoing Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
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