Minister dismisses Israeli claim that Palestinian prisoner died of heart attack, as thousands protest over his death.

The Palestinian government is alleging that a Palestinian man who died in Israeli custody was tortured to death, dismissing claims that his death was due to a heart attack.
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© AFPIsraeli security forces clashed with protesters near the West Bank city of Jenin
Arafat Jaradat's autopsy showed torture resulting from fractures in his body and bruises in his face, while his heart was in good condition, said Issa Qaraqaa, the minister in charge of prisoner affairs, citing a Palestinian doctor who took part in the autopsy.

"These results prove Israel killed him," Qaraqaa told a news conference on Sunday.

Jaradat died on Saturday in an Israeli jail from what prison authorities initially said appeared to have been a cardiac arrest.

The 30-year-old man from Sair near Hebron in the occupied West Bank was arrested last Monday for alleged involvement in a November 2012 stone-throwing incident that injured an Israeli, according to Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service.

The death of Jaradat set off more clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian stone-throwers in several areas of the West Bank on Sunday.

In one incident, two Palestinians were wounded by army fire, including a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the chest, a Palestinian health official said.

Prison protests

Several thousand Palestinian prisoners held by Israel observed a one-day fast to protest Jaradat's death.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians from Hamas, which governs the territory, Islamic Jihad and other factions, also gathered to protest against Jaradat's death.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Fawzi Barhoum, an Hamas spokesperson, said: "This is a crime against our prisoners committed by the Israeli government. There must be a third Intifada [uprising] and a revolution ... to pressure Israel to protect our prisoners."

Protests in solidarity with Samer Issawi, one of the four hunger strikers who has refused food since August to protest against his detention, were also held on Sunday.

Protesters in Issawi's village and in different parts of Hebron city hurled stones at Israeli security forces who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, witnesses said.

Israel holds more than 4,600 Palestinians in jail on charges that range from stone-throwing to deadly attacks on Israeli targets.

Palestinians said Jaradat was a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Jaradat's body was transferred to a hospital in Hebron late on Sunday after an autopsy at Israel's national forensic institute near Tel Aviv.

He was to be buried at noon on Monday.

An Israeli police spokesman declined to comment on the autopsy results or investigation into Jaradat's death, and would only say that "the subject is still under examination".

Israel holds more than 4,600 Palestinians in jail on charges that range from stone-throwing to deadly attacks on Israeli targets.