Israel Katz warned Zubeidi on X ‘one mistake and you’re going to meet old friends’ [GETTY]
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz took to social media on Thursday to threaten a former Palestinian detainee with reincarceration after the man was released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
Katz’s post on X targeted Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, who was one of 110 detainees released on Thursday.
“One mistake and you’re going to meet old friends,” Katz said, calling out Zubeidi by name.
“We will not accept support for terrorism,” Katz added.
Zubeidi was welcomed with open arms after arriving in Al-Bireh, telling journalists he went to prison for the Palestinian people, and that his freedom is incomplete until the Palestinians get their independence.
“Thanks be to Allah who blessed me with liberation today. May God have mercy on the martyrs in Gaza,” Zubeidi said during celebrations.
Zubeidi told The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that the prison conditions were “very bad”.
Speaking to Sky News, Zubeidi said: “The situation in Israeli prisons is extremely harsh.”
“We’ve witnessed it all: severe beatings, attack dogs, relentless insults. Every form of abuse imaginable has been inflicted on the bodies of our prisoners.”
“The [Israeli] occupation takes revenge on all the Palestinian people,” he said.
“We ask God to be kind to our people in the Gaza Strip, and return them to their homes safe and sound, and to have mercy on Jenin camp and the West Bank, as all our Palestinian people are under attack,” while also calling out the international community for their complicity in Israel’s war.
Zubeidi has spent many years in and out of Israeli prisons, with the latest stretch beginning in 2019.
He was one of six detainees who famously escaped an Israeli prison by digging out a tunnel using a spoon in 2021 but then caught days later.
Threatening former prisoners
Israel has often rearrested and targeted freed Palestinian prisoners, with many returning to detention shortly after their release.
Israeli forces on Saturday raised several homes of former detainees in Hebron who were released under the truce, threatening them and their families and warning them against celebrating their release or displaying flags and banners.
Local sources told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that Israeli forces the home of Imad Abu Ramouz, coinciding with his release. A journalist was also assaulted while reporting on the raid of the former detainee’s home.
On Saturday, Israel released 183 Palestinians as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the freed detainees showed signs of starvation, illness and physical injuries, indicating they had been tortured.
