Israeli military court hands down nine-life-term against Hamas leader

The Israeli Salem military court has passed a nine-life-term plus 20 years against Sheikh Jamal Abul Haija, a Hamas leader in Jenin district, who was detained in August 2002 during an Israeli incursion into Jenin refugee camp.

Abul Haija's relatives condemned the sentence as prejudicial, and charged that the Israeli intelligence apparatuses were pressuring the military courts into passing unfair sentences against Palestinian detainees, <i>PIC</i> reported.

One of the Sheikh's hands was amputated during the Israeli "defensive shield" operation launched against West Bank cities in 2002.

Meanwhile, a source in the Hamas movement strongly condemned the prison sentence passed against Abul Haija as extremely unjust. The source charged that the ruling was handed down in reaction to the "insults the Zionist troops suffered during the Jenin heroic steadfastness, which the Sheikh was one of its major symbols".

Furthermore, the source asserted that the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, wouldn’t observe the truce with the Israeli government in case it rejected to release all Palestinian prisoners interned in Israeli jails.