The occupation re-arrested the boy Youssef Al-Khatib without charges after threatening him with assassination (social networking sites)

Nablus - 

For a moment, Abdullah Al-Khatib thought that the occupation’s release of his captive son Youssef under an international agreement would protect him from arrest again, and that he would return to his life and school away from prison, but the occupation, which is controlling the fate of the Palestinians, as usual, disappointed him and arrested him again, as the first case to be re-arrested despite being among the batches. The recent prisoner exchange between the resistance in Gaza and Israel.

Youssef Al-Khatib (17 years old) was released from Aqabat Jabr camp in the city of Jericho in the West Bank after administrative detention that lasted 3 months out of a 6-month sentence, as part of the truce agreement in November between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel under Egyptian-Qatari sponsorship.

The agreement was implemented in batches as part of the prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, according to which the former released 50 of its Israeli prisoners, while the occupation released 240 detained Palestinian children and women.​​​​​​

Prisoner affairs specialist: The occupation denies all agreements (Reuters)

Threat and arrest

From the first moments, the occupation deliberately pursued and harassed Al-Khatib, and arrested him for hours a week after his liberation, and released him after beating and abusing him. Then the occupation security services pursued him and tightened the screws on him through threatening and intimidating calls, and called on him to surrender himself “for the purpose of a quick interview and his release,” according to his father.

Abu Youssef says - to Al Jazeera Net - that after 5 days of trying not to hand over his son to Israeli intelligence, the occupation’s threats escalated, and the danger and fear for his son increased, “as the occupation threatened to assassinate him if he fled or did not surrender himself, and the officer told him that he had instructed the soldiers to shoot him.”

Under the influence of the threat, the father handed Youssef over to the occupation, hoping to return him after interrogating him, but he did not do so and he was transferred to administrative detention again.

Israel arrested this boy twice previously; Last May, the occupation raided his house and kidnapped him after severely beating him. He was released after 12 days because he was a minor after being fined financially. He was arrested again in August and transferred to administrative detention, where he spent 3 months, and was released as part of the truce agreement.

With all the arrests, the occupation did not bring specific charges against Youssef, but instead transferred him to administrative detention with a “secret indictment file,” which angered his family, especially in light of his repeated arrest, incitement, and threats. His father says, “The occupation wants to break my son’s will and terrorize him in an attempt to deter him.”

After his recent liberation, Youssef's life was disturbed by the occupation's harassment and the fear of being arrested again, so he stayed at home and did not leave it even for his school.

Occupation approach

For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (non-governmental) considered Al-Khatib's re-arrest a "dangerous violation" of the release deals that had been concluded, and an indication that the occupation is restoring its policy of arresting ex-detainees as part of exchange deals.

Amani Sarhana, media officer at the Prisoner’s Club, feared the occupation’s “permanent approach” to re-arrest, and said that this confirms that “there is no guarantee with the occupation, even if it is under regional or international supervision.”

In her interview with Al Jazeera Net, Farajna ruled out that the re-arrest of the liberated prisoners was based on new violations or charges, and said that “previous sentences” are being reinstated for those prisoners, as the occupation did with the prisoners of the “Loyalty of the Free” deal (Shalit deal), including prisoners sentenced to prison. Life imprisonment and others detained before Oslo.

She believes that despite the recent agreement (the Al-Aqsa Flood Exchange Truce), under which 240 children and women were released in exchange for 105 Israeli and foreign prisoners, it was in the form of a truce and not an expanded and comprehensive agreement like a big deal, this does not absolve the occupation of its responsibilities.

Therefore - Farajna continues - that in front of any other future agreement on exchange deals and others, there must be more guarantees, and greater pressure on the occupation from all mediating parties and under international supervision, not just regionally.

Malicious

intentions

The occupation has never committed to any agreement with the Palestinians, whether those released in the Oslo Accords or even Wafa al-Ahrar in 2011. It re-arrested 100 prisoners from Wafa al-Ahrar in 2014, and continues to detain 48 of them.

Fouad Al-Khafash, who specializes in prisoner affairs, says that the occupation denies all agreements, and confirms that the re-arrest of the prisoners takes place “by an Israeli political decision” and that it occurs without them committing any violations.


He explained to Al Jazeera Net that the occupation is trying the released prisoners on the previous charges for which they were arrested and tried and released as part of a liberation deal, and therefore Israel is not looking for justification for its actions.

Al-Khafsh added, "This did not happen in the history of the conflict, nor in all the deals that took place between countries, nor even in previous exchange deals with the occupation itself."

The prisoners' expert believed that restoring the previous sentences to the prisoners was a confirmation of the occupation's "malicious intentions" to re-arrest them. He said, "The occupation always and forever tries to convey that it will not forget or drop from its agenda anyone who resisted it."

What is required

of everyone

But what is required to oblige Israel? Especially since the door is still open for a broad exchange deal, here Al-Khuffash confirms that the “major problem” lies in part with the mediators, because they did not take any deterrent measures against the occupation with the “Loyalty of the Free” deal, and thus Israel re-arrested the freed persons, and is now arresting and doing the same. The same with the prisoners of the new agreement.

In light of the fact that the occupation itself is considered above the law, according to Al-Khafsh, and that no one is obligated to it and commits crimes without deterrence from international conventions and laws, and the absence of any person or guarantor, Al-Khafsh says, “This requires the resistance to oblige the occupation and to create conditions that ensure that the occupation does not deny any agreement.” It will also push the resistance to demand that the mediators be serious and guarantee the occupation.”

Like Youssef Al-Khatib, the occupation re-arrested the boy Ahmed Walid Khashan from the village of Bir Al-Basha near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Thursday, marking the second arrest of liberated prisoners as part of the recent exchange agreement between the resistance in Gaza and Israel.

Source: Al Jazeera