Palestinian factions have called for a general strike in the occupied West Bank and urged residents to confront Israeli troops after a Palestinian prisoner died of lung cancer.
Nasser Abu Hmaid, 50, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, was sentenced to seven life sentences in 2002 for involvement in the deaths of seven Israelis during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against Israel’s occupation in the early 2000s.
Palestinian officials had called for his release as his health deteriorated in recent months.
Abu Hmaid’s death came as one of the deadliest years in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in recent decades draws to a close, with the prospects of negotiating a two-state solution and ending Israel’s open-ended military rule over the Palestinians increasingly remote.
The Israel Prison Service confirmed Abu Hmaid’s death.
It said he was terminally ill and hospitalised a day earlier.
The service added that “as in every case of this kind, the incident will be investigated”.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group representing former and current prisoners, said that about 4700 Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel for security offenses and illegal entry to Israel.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).