RAMALLAH
By Qais Abu Samra
Israel on Wednesday agreed to conduct an autopsy on a Palestinian man who died in southern Israel's Eshel Prison on Tuesday in order to determine the cause of death, a Palestinian NGO has said.
"An Israeli court approved a request by the Palestinian side to conduct a postmortem procedure on Raed al-Jaabari in the presence of Palestinian Forensic Medicine Authority head Saber al-Aloul," the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a Wednesday statement.
It added that the autopsy would be conducted at a medical center in central Israel.
Anadolu Agency could not obtain immediate comment from Israeli authorities regarding the society's assertions.
Israel's Prison Service claimed Al-Jaabari, 37, had been taken to hospital after hanging himself.
Prisoners Society head Qadoura Fares, for his part, voiced doubts as to Israel's version of events.
"We are awaiting more details," Fares said. "We do not trust the Israeli story."
Al-Jaabari was detained on July 26 following the disappearance in Hebron of three Jewish settlers. He was never presented to the court.
Israeli authorities launched a massive detention campaign in the occupied West Bank following the three settlers' disappearance on June 12. Their bodies were found later the same month.
Around 2,000 West Bank Palestinians have been detained and 40 others killed by Israeli forces since early June.
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