JERUSALEM: A Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli jail yesterday, officials said, as the number of inmates on hunger strike climbed to 11, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. Arafat Jaradat was “arrested a few days ago. He was killed during the investigation,” the Palestinian minister in charge of prisoner affairs Issa Qaraqaa said. “We demand the creation of an international commission of inquiry to probe the circumstances of his death,” Qaraqaa said. Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Jaradat, a 30-year-old from the West Bank city of Hebron, died suddenly at Meggido detention centre in northern Israel. “It was probably a cardiac arrest. I don’t have additional details at the moment,” Weizman said. Israel’s Shin Bet internal intelligence service said Jaradat had been taken ill just before his death. The Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip said Jaradat had died because of “the inhuman conditions in Israeli jails.” The death could exacerbate tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories which have been rocked this month by protests of solidarity with four other prisoners detained by Israel who are on hunger strike. The Ramallah-based Prisoners’ Club announced that another seven prisoners have joined the protest action.
Yemen security chief escapes bid on life
ADEN: A Yemeni security chief survived an assassination attempt yesterday in the south of the country, where three people were killed in clashes between his forces and separatists. The Defence Ministry said Abdulwahab Al Wali, head of the central security forces, escaped the attack by unknown gunmen in the town of Mukalla, but two of his bodyguards were wounded. Wali survived a previous assassination attempt last year, one of a string of attacks on military, political and militia leaders and officials. Many have been blamed on the Islamists, but the authorities did not say whether any group was suspected of yesterday’s shooting. In other developments, medical and security sources said three people were killed and 14 wounded in clashes between Yemeni security forces and separatists in the south.
Arab militia kill over 50 in Sudan’s Darfur
KHARTOUM: An Arab militia firing heavy machine guns killed more than 50 people in Sudan’s Darfur region yesterday, residents said, continuing unrest that has caused the largest displacement of people in years. “They came on Land Cruisers, used Dushkas and they burned 30 houses killing 53 people,” said one resident of El Sireaf town, to which most of the 100,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled. Another resident, who said he was wounded, also gave a figure of 53 dead. The two said the attackers wore uniforms and belonged to a militia of the Rezeigat tribe, which has been fighting rival Arabs from the Beni Hussein group since early January in the Jebel Amir gold mining area of North Darfur state. Agencies
