Israel-linked spy detained in Gaza

Some 8,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli jails (file photo).

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184145.html

Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad says it has arrested a Palestinian man suspected of spying for Israel in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The spy, who is linked to the murder of at least 16 Palestinian resistance forces by Israeli troops inside Gaza, was finally arrested on Friday after months of investigation and surveillance, Xinhua reported the Islamic Jihad saying in a statement.

Hours later, the man was handed over to the democratically elected government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The arrest came on the same day as the Israeli army detained at least eight Palestinians in the West Bank.

Wasfi Qubaha, a former minister of prisoners' affairs in the Hamas-run government was among the captured, Palestinian security sources said.

The 50-year-old was snatched from his home in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, following a raid on his house.

Qubaha, who has been arrested several times, was later taken to an Israeli army detention station.

The other seven Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army are reportedly members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement.

Some 8,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli jails, prisoner advocacy groups say.

Many of these prisoners are held without ever having been charged with a crime, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Torture is meanwhile used systematically against Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Israeli laws legalize torture and allow Israeli intelligence services to use “moderate degree of physical pressure” against Palestinians and protect these interrogators from prosecution.

According to Palestinian officials, so far over 200 Palestinian prisoners have died inside Israeli prisons as a result of torture, medical negligence and shooting.