Israeli forces detain senior PA official’s driver — report
Palestinian Authority minister stopped at West Bank checkpoint, driver taken to unknown destination, official says
The IDF stopped the car of prominent Palestinian Authority official Issa Qaraqe and detained his driver Sunday, according to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.
Qaraqe told Ma’an that Israeli forces “brutally” searched his car at the Za’atara checkpoint near Tapuah Junction in the West Bank. He said his driver Amir al-Amir, was detained and taken to an unknown destination.
Qarage said there was no reason for the incident, calling it an act of “revenge.”
The IDF said the incident was under the responsibility of the Israel Police.
A former minister, Qaraqe now serves as chair of the Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoner Affairs and has been a vocal critic of the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The prisoners’ affairs committee, also known as the Palestinian prisoners club, said last week that it holds Israel responsible for rising tensions in Israel’s jails, and called for an international campaign to pressure Israel to end its use of administrative detention, under which Israel can hold terror suspects without charging them.