Israel, PA detain, torture five sons of Palestinian lawmaker

Four sons of Palestinian lawmaker Fathi al Qaraawi’s have been in Israeli jails for months or years and the fifth of them was detained by the Palestinian Authority early this month and interned at Jericho’s “slaughterhouse.”

“They stripped me off my sons in order to break us like what they have been doing for all the Palestinian families working for the sake of this country,” the MP told Safa news agency.

Qaraawi has eight sons. Five of them are currently either in Israel or the PA jails. “We were sitting together here,” he said while pointing to the sitting room. “Now, it is almost empty.”

He counted his sons in prison: Hamza, 37, has been under administrative detention in Israeli jails since last year. He spent a total of 12 years inside Israeli and PA prisons.

Baraa, 32, spent two years in Israeli jails, and he has been in the PA jails for a month now. Mohammad, 31, has been in Israeli jails since early this year.

Hazem, 36, was detained last month and has been ever since under investigation. Hazem has so far spent 45 months in Israeli and a year in PA jails.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman has been detained by the Israeli occupation and spent several months in prison, he is now free.

The MP said that his son Mo’men was detained early this month by the PA and interned at Jericho “slaughterhouse,” 150 km away from his home.

Qaraawi, 65, was detained by the Israeli occupation several times and spent years in Israeli jails. He was expelled to Marj al Zohour in south Lebanon in 1992 along with more than 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members and leaders.

He was elected an MP in 2006. While an MP, he was detained and tortured by the Israeli occupation.

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