Israel Rearrests Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar

Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar. Reuters file photo
Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar. Reuters file photo
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Israel Rearrests Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar

Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar. Reuters file photo
Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar. Reuters file photo

Israeli forces on Thursday rearrested Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed group, her daughter said.

"My mother … was arrested from our house in Ramallah" at about 3:00 am, Jarrar's daughter Yafa posted on Facebook.

Jarrar, 56, was previously arrested on July 2, 2017, for being a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club told AFP that Palestinian writer Ali Jaradat, a known PFLP member, was also arrested overnight, as well as 10 other people whose identities the club did not disclose.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned the arrests.

"We strongly condemn the overnight raids of Ramallah, Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities by Israeli occupation forces and their targeted detention of several activists, including elected representative and political leader Khalida Jarrar," she said.

"This is the third time Israeli occupation forces detain representative Khalida Jarrar, who is also a prominent human rights defender."

Shortly after last year's arrest, she was given a six-month administrative detention order, which was then extended several times.

Israeli administrative detention orders allow suspects to be held without charge for renewable six-month periods.

Israel says administrative detention is intended to allow authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, with the aim of preventing crimes in the meantime.

But the system has been criticized by Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community, who say Israel abuses it.

The Israeli army said that after one such extension of Jarrar's custody, "security personnel found she still poses a substantial threat".

She had also been jailed in the past.

In December 2015, an Israeli military court convicted Jarrar on charges including encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban.

It sentenced her to 15 months in prison, but she was freed a month early due to overcrowding in Israeli jails.



Netanyahu Says Israel Is Establishing a New Security Corridor across Gaza

An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Says Israel Is Establishing a New Security Corridor across Gaza

An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Wednesday, he described it as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting it would run between the two southern cities.

His comments came as Palestinian officials at hospitals inside Gaza said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded since the war against Hamas began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab that further shrinks the narrow coastal territory, home to around 2 million people.