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Israel Defence Forces raid ex-prisoners' homes

February 17, 2014 at 11:14 pm

Soldiers of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have raided the homes of some ex-prisoners in the city of Qalqiliya in the occupied West Bank. The homes included those belonging to Akram Mansour, Shady Al Zayed, and Ibrahim Yassin who were released as part of the exchange deal agreed by Hamas and Israel last month. The occupation authorities handed the men summonses to go to centres of the Israeli intelligence services.


This followed a similar raid on Sunday, when the army stormed into the house of ex-detainee Somood Karaja in the village of Safa, to the west of Ramallah. The IDF forces also served a summons for her to go to the Israeli intelligence centre in the Ofer camp in Ramallah. Karaja was one of the women prisoners released as part of the exchange deal; she was set free after serving two years of a 20-year sentence.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society denounced Israel’s campaign targeting former prisoners who were released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The PPS called on the Egyptians who mediated in the discussions for the exchange deal to fulfil their responsibility towards ending the Israeli occupation authority’s practices which cause much suffering to the ex-prisoners and their families. “The ex-prisoners,” said a PPS press release, “have fulfilled the requirements placed on them through their release, now it’s time for the Israelis and the Egyptians to do the same.”