Israel releases Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar from prison

Gulf Today Report

Israeli authorities on Sunday released from jail Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, a prominent Palestinian lawmaker, after two years in detention. Jarrar, a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been in and out of Israeli prisons for years — often without being charged.

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Jarrar, 58, was sentenced to two years in March 2021 for belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which Israel and the United States label a "terrorist" organisation.

Khalida Jarrar visits the grave of her daughter at the Ramallah city cemetery in the occupied West Bank. AFP

Israeli military did not find evidence Jarrar had taken part in violent acts.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops conducted a series of arrest raids against suspected Hamas militants across the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, sparking a pair of gun battles in which five Palestinians were killed and two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded.

It was the deadliest violence between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank in several weeks. The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent months, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction, heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank and the aftermath of a bloody war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last May.