Israel Places Palestinian Leader Khaleda Jarrar Under Administrative Arrest

Palestinian activist Khaleda Jarrar. (Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA)
Palestinian activist Khaleda Jarrar. (Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA)
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Israel Places Palestinian Leader Khaleda Jarrar Under Administrative Arrest

Palestinian activist Khaleda Jarrar. (Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA)
Palestinian activist Khaleda Jarrar. (Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA)

Israel has transferred prominent Palestinian activist Khaleda Jarrar into administrative detention for six months, announced the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) on Thursday, bringing the total number of females under administrative detention to ten.

Jarrar, aged 60, was apprehended on December 26, with a history of multiple arrests preceding the recent detention, as stated by the PPS.

Utilizing an old British law, Israel has the authority to hold Palestinians in administrative detention for up to six months without trial. This term can be indefinitely renewed based on the alleged existence of a confidential file on the detainee.

"The Occupation released her in 2021. During her arrest, she lost her daughter and was deprived of bidding farewell to her. During her arrest in 2017, she lost her father," the statement read.

Israeli authorities refrained from providing comments on the transfer of multiple detainees, including Jarrar, into administrative detention.

The PPS drew attention to a concerning surge in the number of administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, reaching the highest count since the Intifada in 1987. The figure stood at 3,291 detainees at the end of December, surpassing both sentenced captives and those in pretrial detention.

In a separate statement, the PPS reported that Israeli occupation forces had detained at least 28 citizens in the West Bank on Wednesday and Thursday, including some individuals with prior captivity experience. This brings the total number of arrests since October 7 to 5,810.



UN Investigator Says Israel Still Conducting ‘Starvation Campaign’ in Gaza

Palestinian children queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian children queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Investigator Says Israel Still Conducting ‘Starvation Campaign’ in Gaza

Palestinian children queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian children queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2024. (Reuters)

The UN independent investigator on the right to food insisted Israel is still conducting “a starvation campaign” in Gaza, despite its delivery of over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food to the territory since it launched its military operation a year ago.

Michael Fakhri told reporters Friday that food is not calories and Palestinians have not gotten adequate food or calories.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, recently warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within 30 days or it could risk losing access to US weapons funding.

Fakhri said: “Based on a year-long starvation campaign and a 24-year blockade and siege, allowing a few more trucks to enter in now does not actually address the humanitarian needs.”

“But most importantly, what Israel is saying contradicts everything every humanitarian organization is saying now, and has been saying,” he said.

Fakhri said humanitarian officials call Israel’s rules on what is allowed into Gaza “opaque and absurd.”

Convoys that make it through are often shot at and targeted by Israeli forces despite coordination with Israeli authorities, he said. “And then even if those convoys get past that, civilians seeking aid have been shot at and killed several times.”

Israel’s UN Mission did not respond to a request for comment on Fakhri’s press conference.