<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israeli sources: The PA helped us to detain Bitar and his fellow&nbsp;strikers]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<table width="100%" align="center">
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<td><span class="PublishedDate">[ 					10/01/2011 &#8211; 08:45 AM ] </span></td>
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<p style="font-size:10pt;">OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)&#8211; Israeli  military sources revealed that the kidnapping of senior Hamas leader  Wael Al-Bitar and his four fellow hunger strikers took place after the  Israeli side received intelligence information from the Palestinian  Authority&#8217;s security apparatuses.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">The PA intelligence apparatus had released  last week the five hunger strikers after human rights organizations,  and Palestinian and Arab parties pressured for their release, but the  Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped them on the night of the same  day.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">The sources added that Bitar confessed to  working as an assistant to martyr Shihab Annatsheh who masterminded a  commando operation in Dimona in February 2008.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">Observers believe that the confessions  made by Bitar under torture in PA jails were reported to the IOF in the  context of the security cooperation between the two sides.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">In this regard, an informed security  source in Ramallah city told the Palestinian information center (PIC)  about the circumstances of the Israeli military operation that led to  the detention of the five hunger strikers in Al-Khalil city after their  release from PA jails.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">The source, on condition of anonymity,  revealed the role played by the PA intelligence director Majed Faraj  through his meeting and contact with Israeli officers in order to  coordinate the operation without arousing any suspicion about the PA  security apparatuses.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">He added that after the considerable  pressures placed on de facto president Mahmoud Abbas by different  parties, especially the Islamic Movement headed by Sheikh Ra&#8217;ed Salah  and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin-Khalifa he was prompted to order  his intelligence director Faraj to release the hunger strikers, but the  latter told him that their release was not easy and would violate the  security protocol signed with the Israeli side.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">After that, the source went on saying,  Faraj started to make contacts and hold meetings with Israeli security  officers to put them in the picture of the pressures placed on Abbas and  his authority, but the Israelis at first refused and told the  intelligence director that Israel could not remain silent and watch the  hunger strikers walking in the West Bank free.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">The meetings between Faraj and Israeli  officers concluded with the agreement of both sides on letting Israel  detain the hunger strikers after their release from PA jails in order to  lift the burden on the authority of Abbas.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">In a separate incident, Hamas lawmakers in  Salfit city denounced the PA preventive security apparatus for holding a  military trial against political prisoner Mohamed Suleiman and giving  him an imprisonment sentence of one and a half year.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">The MPs in a press release on Sunday added  that the same PA military court also sentenced in last April a brother  of Suleiman&#8217;s to one year in prison.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;">They emphasized that the persistence of  the PA in holding military trials against the Palestinians in the West  Bank would lead to more tension in the Palestinian arena and kill any  prospect for a national reconciliation.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7soob6DVcjZmDgs0mb5a7IMIasqCMfPO7D7TsJdJ8nIh0z0nXOpmL8gSsduZRenkIRgwx8Ki3N28L5qEJfX3KLsTzavR6xWZ8L%2f8blPbDyfU%3d">Israeli sources: The PA helped us to detain Bitar and his fellow strikers</a>.</p>
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