RAMALLAH: On Sunday, a senior Hamas official called for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, Ma'an News Agency reports. At a protest against the death of Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat, whose autopsy suggests death as a result of torture, Salah Al-Bardawil pointed to the success of the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap and urged fighters to pursue the tactic again. After being kidnapped and held in captivity in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for five years, Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children. According to several reports, 30-year-old Jaradat was detained for throwing a rock. Upon arresting him, soldiers told him to say goodbye to his family forever, his wife told Palestinian media. Addameer Prisoner Support Network said he was interrogated for at least ten days at the time of his death. Israeli officials maintain that Jaradat had a heart attack, though his family claims his health was fine before his arrest. Since news of his death broke, protests have rapidly spread across the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Over the weekend, clashes with the Israeli military occurred in Hebron, Nablus, at Qalandia Checkpoint, and outside of Ofer Military Prison, among other places. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinian Authority to control the security situation in the West Bank as instability continues. The approaching Intifada A Third Intifada seems increasingly inevitable as tensions soar in the West Bank and elsewhere. In recent months, particularly since Israel's latest military offensive on the Gaza Strip in November, the military has launched a sweeping campaign of mass arrests across the entire territory. Residents of Hebron, Nablus, and Jenin, as well as their respective neighboring villages, have been exceptionally targeted for raids and arrests. The plight of prisoners, especially the long term hunger strikers, has united the Palestinian street in anger where reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas had previously failed. There are presently four long term hunger strikers: Samer Al-Issawi has gone some 215 days without food to protest his administrative detention; Tarak Qa'adan and Jazar Ezzedine are quickly approaching the 90 day mark; and Ayman Sharawna, a former hunger striker who went roughly six months without food last year, has restarted his hunger strike, though the precise date he began is unknown. Last week, activists shut down a settler-only road near Bethlehem to protest the treatment of Al-Issawi and the other hunger strikers. Solidarity tents were erected in Ramallah, Birzeit, and Al-Bireh, as well. Several demonstrations occurred at Ofer Military Prison, where Israeli forces responded with tear gas and sound bombs, as well as rubber-coated bullets. On Friday, protesters threw stones at soldiers at Qalandia Checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Many have speculated that the Palestinian Territories are on the brink of a Third Intifada. ”A new Palestinian Intifada is about to break out in support of prisoners,” said Al-Bardawil, according to Ma'an News Agency. BN
