Israel army arrests senior Palestinian lawmaker Jarrar
Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar seen in this September 2021 picture has been arrested by Israeli forces on several occasions and is a member of the PFLP considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union
Ramallah – The Israeli army on Tuesday said it arrested senior Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar in the occupied West Bank, along with other activists of her leftist party.
Jarrar, 60, is a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation considered a “terrorist” group by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
“Khaleda Jarrar, a wanted terrorist, was arrested… along with other PFLP activists,” the army said in a statement.
Jarrar had been previously arrested by Israeli forces in October 2019 and released in September the following year, after being held without trial.
Her husband, Ghassan Jarrar, told AFP soldiers stormed the family home in the city of Ramallah “by breaking open the front door at 5:00 am (0300 GMT)”.
Jarrar was elected in 2006 to the Palestinian assembly as a PFLP representative, and has long been an advocate of women’s rights.
She has also lobbied for the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The PFLP, in a statement, said Israel’s army launched a “vast campaign on Tuesday morning to arrest leaders” of the group in the occupied West Bank.
“These arrests will not break the will of our people,” it said.
Israeli forces have stepped up their operations across the West Bank in recent years, and violence there has risen particularly since the war with Hamas broke out in Gaza on October 7.
More than 300 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the Gaza war erupted, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.
The conflict in Gaza began after Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli communities in which around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to an AFP tally based on the latest Israeli figures.
In Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza, more than 20,600 people have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.