Official: 2014 worst year for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

Issa Qaraqe said in a statement that prisoners have in 2014 been victims of "Israeli revenge policies."
 
He said Israel's move to re-arrest prisoners who were released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal in 2011 was a dangerous political action.
 
Qaraqe also decried Israel's policy of detaining minors, saying some 1,500 minors were detained in 2014, mostly in Jerusalem.
 
He said there were 550 new Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention without charge or trial this year, and that Israel had renewed administrative detention orders for 63 percent of administrative prisoners.
 
"Next year is the year of the legal, humanitarian battle for defending prisoners' rights and dignities," Qaraqe said, without elaborating.
 
Qaraqe delivered his remarks in Ramallah during a visit to freed prisoner Muhannad Jaradat, who has spent five years in Israeli jails, the statement said.
 
Around 7,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, more than 2,000 of whom were arrested by Israeli forces over this summer amid heavy tensions and violence in the West Bank and Gaza.