Today, Feb. 23, 2013, Al Jazeera has reported, Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody. According to a prison spokesperson a Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli jail. News of this death has prompted a Palestinian official on Saturday to charge that he was killed during questioning, with demands for an international probe.
Issa Qaraqaa, Palestinian minister in charge of prisoner affairs, has said that Arafat Jaradat was "arrested a few days ago. He was killed during the investigation." Qaraqaa has also said, "We demand the creation of an international commission of inquiry to probe the circumstances of his death." Sivan Eqizman, who is an Israel Prisons Service spokesperson, has confirmed 30-year-old Jaradat died at the Meggido detention centre in northern Israel. Eqizman has said, "I can confirm that a Palestinian prisoner died today in the Meggido prison. It was probably a cardiac arrest. I don't have additional details at the moment."
The Times of Israel has reported on plans for a massive Palestinian hunger strike in response to this news, 3,000 Palestinian prisoners to launch hunger strike. Three-thousand Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli jails are planning to go on a hunger strike starting Sunday to protest the death of Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat in Megiddo Prison on Saturday. Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, has said in a statement to the press that Jaradat was arrested on Feb. 18, 2013, after residents in his West Bank village of Saeer said he was involved in a rock-throwing attack which injured an Israeli citizen.
