(AFP) - Relatives and Israeli officials said, Tuesday, that Israeli forces have rearrested a Palestinian Authority journalist who was freed from prison last year after an extended hunger strike. Mohammed al-Qiq's wife told AFP he was detained Sunday night at a checkpoint near Ramallah on his way back from a demonstration against Israel's refusal to return the bodies of slain terrorists.
Qiq's lawyer told her he was being held in Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, and "has been on hunger strike since the moment they arrested him." A spokesman for the Israel Prisons Service said Qiq was in its custody since Monday but denied he was on hunger strike. The Shin Bet Israel Security Agency said Qiq had been detained on Sunday night along with 12 other men, including a member of the PA parliament, as part of a network of Hamas operatives. The PA Prisoners Club said Israeli forces had arrested 20 people, 15 of them as repeat offenders.