Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Israeli security forces on Sunday raided the house of prominent Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Eisawi in occupied Jerusalem, a day before his release. Palestinian sources said that Israeli police and agents of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet raided al-Eisawi home in the town of Al-Issawiya, to the northeast of Jerusalem. The sources said that the Israeli security forces searched the prisoner's home and later summoned his father and his brother for questioning at a police station in the city. The development comes a day before the release of al-Eisawi who on April ended about nine months of hunger strike following a deal reached with Israel regarding his release in eight months. Eisawi had been serving a 20-year term before he was released in a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas movement in 2011. Under the deal, Israel soldier Gilad Shalit, who spent more than five years in Hamas captivity, was freed in exchange of the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. However, Israeli forces arrested Eisawi again in 2012 and had been on a hunger strike since August. Many Palestinian demonstrations were held in solidarity with Eisawi, and some of these rallies in the West Bank turned into violent clashes with Israeli forces. According to recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 4,900 Palestinian prisoners in its in 23 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank of whom 234 children, 15 females, 15 members of Palestine Legislative Council, 135 in administrative detention without trial and hundreds suffer from medical negligence. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that prisoners must be freed in line with to the peace agreements reached with Israel. On July, Israel agreed to a four-stage release of 104 prisoners in order to facilitate the resumption of American-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In the first stage of the release this past August, 26 Palestinians were freed. In the second stage of the deal this October, 21 prisoners were released.
