Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Israel has placed its military and security forces on
high alert amid rising violence in the West Bank.

Officials said the government has placed the military and security
forces in the West Bank on high alert in wake of an assessment that the
Palestinian Authority was encouraging violence.

The officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to restore order in wake of the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from this morning has been holding security consultations in the wake of events in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu’s office said on Feb. 25.

[On Feb. 26, Palestinian gunners fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip that landed in Israel. The rocket, which did not cause injuries, marked the first violation in nearly two months of the ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas regime.]

Officials said Netanyahu pledged to step up Israeli funds to the PA in
exchange for quiet in the West Bank and Jerusalem. They said Netanyahu
sought to assure Abbas that the Palestinian detainee, identified as Arafat
Jaradat, had not been tortured.

“Fatalities are almost a proven recipe for intensified escalation,”
Israeli Civil Defense Minister Avi Dichter said. “They [PA] are trying to
drag us to a situation where there will be dead children.”

On Feb. 25, Jaradat was buried in his hometown of Hebron. The PA
asserted that Jaradat was tortured during his six days in Israeli detention.

“We lost Arafat Jaradat who was arrested and came back in a coffin,”
Abbas said. “This cannot pass lightly.”

  Arafat Jaradat, Avi Dichter, Hebron, Israel forces on high alert after death of Palestinian detainee