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Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel Over Detention of Jordanian Citizens

Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel Tuesday for consultation following the administrative detention of two Jordanian citizens: Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Miri.
Sputnik

In a tweet Tuesday, Ayman Safadi wrote that Jordan "holds the Israeligovernment responsible for the lives of our citizens whose health conditions have severely deteriorated in illegal arbitrary detention."

Labadi, 32, was arrested by Israeli officials on August 20 at the Allenby Bridge that connects the West Bank with Jordan “because of suspicion of her involvement in serious security violations,” according to the Israeli Shin Bet security service. She was admitted to the Bnei Zion Hospital in the city of Haifa Thursday, after going on a monthlong hunger strike to protest her detention without trial by Israeli officials.

Labadi’s attorney, Raslan Mahajna, told Haaretz last week that her detainment was related to the fact that she met with a host of the Al-Nour radio station, a Hezbollah media outlet, while visiting her sister in recent months in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Hezbollah is a militant group based in Lebanon. Israeli officials believe that Labadi was on a mission to the West Bank to recruit Hezbollah operatives, according to Haaretz.

However, Labadi has denied the claims against her, and her family has confirmed that she isn’t a political activist. According to her lawyer, Labadi has been abused, verbally assaulted and tortured by Shin Bet interrogators.

Abdelrahman Meri, 29, was also arrested on the Allenby Bridge while he was crossing it on September 2 with his mother. It's unclear why he is being detained.

According to Meri's brother, Othman, Meri was treated for nasal cancer in 2010 and needs to live in sanitary conditions as a result. “The occupation authorities refused to admit new clothes for Abdelrahman and now he suffers from a skin disease, which developed in detention,” Othman said, Middle East Eye reported.

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