Palestinian Authority (PA) officials on Tuesday claimed Israel committed a "war crime," after an Arab terrorist jailed in Israel committed suicide by hanging himself.
Israel Prison Service spokesperson Sivan Weizman told AFP the prisoner hung himself in the bathrooms at Eshel Prison in Be'er Sheva, adding that a medical team had tried to revive him but that he was pronounced dead on arrival at Soroka Hospital in the southern city.
"A prisoner hanged himself in the toilets," she told AFP, saying a team of paramedics, as well as prison officers, had tried to resuscitate him. "They managed to revive him but, on the way to hospital, his heart apparently stopped working again and he was pronounced dead on arrival."
The spokesperson added that the prisoner was serving time for assaults and making threats, and had been imprisoned since July when Hamas launched its terror war on Israel.
A relative of the jailed terrorist told AFP he was arrested near the Kfar Etzion Junction in Judea after a car accident in which he attempted to run over several Jewish residents. The relative claimed the charge of attempted vehicular murder didn't happen.
The PA, which named the prisoner as Raed Abdel Salam al-Jaabari (35), called for an independent probe over the suicide, and accused Israel of somehow being involved in the man's death, which it claimed occurred "under mysterious circumstances."
PA Prisoners' Affairs Union chairman Qadura Fares "cast doubt on the occupation's claims that the prisoner committed suicide and asked international organizations to investigate his death," according to a statement from his office.
"Israel is responsible for his death," PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqa claimed to AFP. "The Israelis say he tried to hang himself but it is not true. It is a lie. This is a war crime."
"Helping prisoners" or funding terror?
It should be noted that the PA unions and ministries tasked with "Prisoners' Affairs" have been actively finding ways of deceiving Western sponsors from the fact that they are channeling funds to convicted terrorists.
Recently it was revealed that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave a decree transferring the responsible offices from the PA to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), thereby allowing the PA to continue receiving international funds without directly funding terror.
As for the talk of "war crimes," the PA has threatened to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on such charges numerous times.
However, it has been noted such a move could back-fire as it would allow Israel to sue the PA for war crimes as well. Indeed, the Shurat Hadin civil rights group recently began proceedings against Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal for war crimes over Hamas's execution of "collaborators" with Israel in Gaza.
Rights groups have charged Hamas made up "collaboration" charges to kill members of Abbas's Fatah faction without trial, an assertion backed by Abbas's recent statement saying "Hamas conducted atrocities during the war in Gaza, also at its end when it executed 120 people without trial because they breached the curfew placed on them."
Abbas's mention of curfews appears to be a reference to a reported decision by Hamas to confine dozens of Fatah members to effective house arrest for the duration of Operation Protective Edge.