Hamas threatens retaliation following crackdown on Palestinian prisoners

By Aaron Boxerman 21 December 2021, 8:03 pm

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Sheikh Raed Salah (center left), leader of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, celebrates with supporters following his release from a jail in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, on December 13, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

The Hamas terror group threatens retaliation after a Palestinian prisoner stabbed an Israeli guard with a small improvised weapon, sparking what Palestinians said was a crackdown.

Yousef al-Mabhouh, a Palestinian security prisoner from Gaza, stabbed an Israeli prison guard last night, lightly wounding him. In response, Israeli prison authorities shut down the compound and put several prisoners into solitary confinement, according to Palestinian media.

“We will not allow the battle to stay confined to the jails,” says Hamas official Zaher Jabareen in an interview with Palestine Today TV. “We will not leave our prisoners to fend for themselves.”

Hamas says it has passed a message to Israel through Egypt and other mediators between the two sides warning Israel “against continuing to aggress against prisoners inside [Israeli] jails.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have occasionally threatened to attack Israel over the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. But those threats have rarely come to pass, with the problem generally getting resolved in one way or another.