Alwaght- Since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and escalation of war in Gaza that saw ruthless massacring of the civilians by Israeli airstrikes, the Israeli military and security pressures on various parts of the West Bank have seriously been mounted, and to prevent Palestinian protests, an atmosphere of suppression encompassed this part of the occupied territories, to an extent that over the two weeks of the war, the Israeli forces killed over 90 Palestinians in the West Bank.
However, the adoption of the iron fist policy to silence the voices of protests and prevent a new intifada in Palestinian areas is not limited to killing in the streets, and the lives of Palestinian prisoners in the prisons of the regime are also in serious danger.
In this connection, the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Palestine Prisoners Club announced on Tuesday the death of Arafat Hamdan, a 25 years old man from Beit Seerah town, in Afar prison west of Ramallah.
According to these Palestinian sources, the Israeli occupation forces had detained Hamdan on October 22 during massive detentions in raids on the West Bank after the start of Hamas operation.
The statement stresses that the Israeli occupation has started a “systemic assassination” of the Palestinian detainees amid an all-out aggression against the Palestinians and prisoners.
The two groups also on Monday in a statement reported the death of Omar Daraghmeh, a 58 year old administrative detainee from Tobas town, in the Israeli detention.
The statement said that Daraghmeh was detained along with his son on October 10 and was held to custody in an Israeli prison.
The Israeli Prison Service has claimed that this Palestinian prisoner died of illness and that the details of this incident are under investigation.
A few hours later, Palestinian sources said he was a member of Hamas movement and was detained after the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
Administrative detention is a detention of natural persons by the governments for security claims without trying them. Human rights organizations say that the Israeli regime resorts to the policy of administrative detention to detain Palestinian civilians without specific charges and without trial, which deprives the detainees and their lawyers of knowing the reasons for the arrest and often leads to the extension of the arrest for several times in a row.
The death of this official of Hamas is shrouded in mystery because Daraghmeh attended his court session the very morning and according to his lawyer, he was in perfect health. Daraghmeh was arrested and initially sentenced to six months in prison.
Tobas residents took to the streets and protested against the Israeli regime, reports said. The demonstrations are expected to broaden.
Hamas stated that Daraghmeh was captured after the movement’s operation and was killed in prison by torture.
The Palestinian resistance movement said in its statement that was published on Tuesday held Israeli regime accountable for the consequences of regular violation of the rights of the Palestinian prisoners and called for “international pressures against criminal Israeli leaders.”
“The Zionist occupation’s authorities continue their brutal actions and abuses against our heroic prisoners in their prisons, including brutal beatings, prolonged deprivation of water and electricity, and inadequate medical care and food,” part of the statement read.
Policy of assassination of resistance leaders
The death of Daraghmeh in a totally suspicious way, especially after it was revealed that he was a leader from Hamas in the West Bank, evokes the recent threats by Israeli officials about resorting to policy of assassination of resistance leaders.
For example, Avigdor Lieberman, the former defense minister and the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, earlier in September after a rise in the wave of Palestinian istishadi operations in the West Bank and killing of tens of Israeli settlers censured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance and called for restoration of policy of assassination of Palestinian resistance leaders.
“Without adopting the policy of assassination, there is no solution to this problem,” he said.
Also, three months ago, the Israeli regime assassinated three Islamic Jihad commanders, which led to a three-day conflict between the two sides. Now, with the growing concerns of the Israeli leaders about the possibility of mass protests and even a new intifada in the West Bank, especially if ground operation begins in Gaza, it seems that one of the security policies is to arrest and kill the leaders of the resistance in the West Bank for both spreading terror and cutting the leadership and organization power of the resistance in the time of possible rebellions.
Israeli regime takes revenge on the Palestinian prisoners for its losses to Gaza resistance
There is no doubt that the lightening Operation Al-Aqsa Storm by inflicting a large number of casualties on the Israelis and capturing prisoners has already secured a big victory for the Palestinian resistance and left a fatal wound on the largely shallow security and military power of the Israeli regime with whose consequences the Israelis will live for years.
In response to this heavy defeat, the Israelis have shown no art but massacring of the civilians with airstrikes, and the Israeli army remains behind Gaza borders as it is afraid of a ground offensive. Therefore, at a time the Palestinian women and children are the victims of the blind revenge campaign of the blood-thirsty Israelis, certainly the prisoners are the most accessible and defenseless victims for the Israelis to quench their blood thirst.
Embarking on tit-for-tat policy, the Israeli criminal leaders, in the highly important case of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, want to show that they can use the prisoners card to press Hamas for release of their prisoners.
Tel Aviv has to yield to prisoner swap
From another aspect, by killing people who have been influential resistance elements in the past years, it is likely that the Israeli regime from now sees itself of no escape way from a deal to secure release of its prisoners held by Hamas and prepares for that day to reduce the security risks of the prisoner swap.
Hamas officials have repeatedly announced their efforts to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons through a deal also securing release of Israeli prisoners.
“We have enough Israeli military prisoners to negotiate for our prisoners, and we have announced to some countries our readiness to hand over civilian prisoners,” Khaled Meshal, a Hamas leader, told Al-Arabiya news network.
He added that “we are talking only about Israeli military prisoners, and we swap the Israeli prisoners only for release of all of our prisoners.”
