Khafsh: The next stage will be full of assassinations rather than arrests

[ 28/12/2009 - 11:34 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Fouad Al-Khafsh, the director of Al-Ahrar center for human rights, said Monday that the recent assassination of three ex-detainees in Nablus indicates that the Israeli occupation government (of Netanyahu) will adopt the policy of elimination rather than detention.

Khafsh opined that Israel came to the conclusion that there is no use of detaining resistance fighters for several years and having to swap them for Israeli soldiers captured by the Palestinian resistance.

He said that Israel might follow from now on the policy of killing and assassination in cold blood to settle scores with Palestinians accused of killing Israelis.

For their part, the Palestinian lawmakers and ministers strongly denounced the Arab and international silence on the assassination of three Palestinian ex-detainees in cold blood in Nablus, describing what happened as premeditated field executions.

In a letter leaked from Israeli jails, the Palestinian officials said that these field executions are war crimes and international felonies that should entail the arrest of the Israeli premier and his war minister and their prosecution in international courts.

They added that the crime was crystal clear and does not need fact-finding committees, calling on all human rights organizations not to waste time and immediately embark on submitting requests to relevant international bodies to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

Al-Ahrar center: The assassination of Sarkaji is a war crime

[ 27/12/2009 - 03:42 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)--

Al-Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights said Saturday that the Israeli assassination of ex-detainee Ra’ed Al-Sarkaji in addition to two other Palestinians in Nablus is a war crime in every sense of the word.

Director of the center Fouad Al-Khafsh stated that Sarkaji was released about one year ago after he spent more than seven years in Israeli jails.

Khafsh added that the assassination of ex-detainees must prompt the Palestinian parties in charge of the prisoner swap file to demand international safeguards preventing Israel from assassinating prisoners after their release.

He noted that the assassination of Sarkaji might be an indirect threat message to Hamas that it must agree on the condition laid by the Israeli government regarding the exile of some prisoners who would be released after the conclusion of a prisoner swap deal if it wanted them to remain alive after their release.

In another context, Al-Ahrar center said that prisoner Yassin Abu Khudair entered his 23rd year in Israeli jails.

The center pointed out that Abu Khudair had refused to sign a paper prepared for prisoners in the aftermath of the Oslo accords, in which the prisoners express their regret for participating in resistance activities against Israel and pledge not to return to such activities.

The center added that Abu Khudair is one of the prisoners’ deans in Israeli jails and one of those who participated in the biggest mass hunger strike in Palestine known as the war of empty stomachs which took place in 1992 in all Israeli prisons and led to his transfer to hospital and the death of one prisoner.