Israel rearrests Palestinian on day of his release from prison

Israeli authorities re-arrested a Palestinian from occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday immediately after he was released after serving a five-year prison sentence, according to official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency.

Wafa reported that Mamoun Farhat was re-arrested immediately after he was released from an Israeli prison in the Negev desert region of southern Israel.

Farhat reportedly did not even make it out of the prison grounds before being detained and taken to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem for interrogation.

Read: Palestinian youth rearrested after just 25 days may soon be released

Farhat had just completed serving a five-year sentence for throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli forces in Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

Wafa quoted PPS’ attorney Mufeed Al-Hajj as saying that “Israel has been employing this policy recently against prisoners from East Jerusalem to deprive their families and friends from celebrating their release.”

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 6,119 Palestinian prisoners were being held in Israeli custody as of February.