Israel extends detention of Palestinian NGO worker

Israeli authorities have extended the remand of Salah Hamouri, a human rights defender and field researcher for Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer.

The NGO said in a statement on Sunday that a judge at the Israeli magistrate’s court in Jerusalem extended Hamouri’s detention for an additional three days for further interrogation.

Addameer said that one of its attorneys, Mahmoud Hassan, has submitted an appeal against the extension.

Thirty-two-year-old Hamouri holds dual Palestinian-French citizenship. He was detained during an overnight raid on his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab on 23 August.

According to Addameer, Hamouri was previously held by Israel for seven years and was released as part of the Wafa Al-Ahrar prisoners exchange deal in 2011.

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Addameer said that the East Jerusalem resident was banned from entering the occupied West Bank until September 2016, and that his wife is currently banned by Israeli authorities from entering the occupied Palestinian territory or Israel.

The group said it considers the detention “an attack against Palestinian civil society organisations and human rights defenders.”

“It also constitutes one arrest in the context of continuous arrest campaigns against Palestinians,” Addameer said, demanding Hamouri’s release and the release of all Palestinian political prisoners.

According to Addameer, 6,128 Palestinians were detained by Israel as of July, 450 of whom were held in administrative detention. The group has estimated that some 40 per cent of Palestinian men will be detained by Israel at some point in their lives.