Israeli authorities have re-detained a Palestinian child who had been released in the prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas last November.
“The Israeli occupation authorities re-arrested teen Yousef Abdullah al-Khatib, 17, from Jericho city (eastern occupied West Bank), today,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that al-Khatib had been summoned by Israeli intelligence and pressured to turn himself in.
⭕ Zionist authorities broke a previous agreement by re-abducting 17-year-old Palestinian child Yousef Abdullah Al-Khatib, who had been released in the captive exchange in Nov 2023.
Youssef was abducted in Areeha today, after he was summoned by the zionist intelligence. (1/ pic.twitter.com/uSaqgm512l
— Palestine Captives 𓂆 (@Palestinecapti1) January 23, 2024
This is the first arrest of a Palestinian freed in the November prisoner swap.
The prisoners’ group noted that al-Khatib’s arrest was “a clear violation to the deal, and an indication that Israel is restoring the policy of re-arresting released prisoners under prisoner swap deals.”
It added that, at the time of his release on Nov. 27, al-Khatib had been detained without charge or trial under Israel’s policy of administrative detention.
The statement urged mediators in Qatar and Egypt to pressure Israeli authorities not to re-arrest released prisoners and to end their persecution.
During a week-long humanitarian pause in Gaza between November 24 and December 1, Hamas released 105 captives held in Gaza, including 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners. They were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 25,700 Palestinians have been killed, and 63,730 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Source: PC, Anadolu