Health condition of Palestinian prisoner Mu’tasem Raddad worsened due to medical negligence in occupation jails

The health condition of the Palestinian captive Mu’tasem Raddad, who has bowel cancer, is witnessing serious deterioration due to Israeli occupation’s policy of deliberate medical negligence towards Palestinian detainees in the Israeli jails.

Palestinian media outlets quoted the captive’s brother Ahed Raddad as saying that “upon his arrest by the occupation forces on January 12th, 2006, Mu’tasem was wounded by shrapnel and due to the harsh conditions of detention, the psychological and physical torture and the occupation authorities refusal to provide him with necessary medical treatment, his health condition worsened leading to his infection with bowel cancer.”

His brother added that Mu’tasem’s health condition is getting worse every day, posing a threat to his life, as he suffers from permanent intestinal bleeding, anemia, high blood pressure, heart problems, difficulty in breathing, problems with nerves and bones, poor vision, and permanent pain that deprives him of sleep. He called on the international community as well as humanitarian and legal organizations to immediately interfere and pressure the Israeli authorities to provide medical treatment to save his life and to release him as well as all the Palestinian prisoners in the occupation jails.

 Last Friday, Palestinian prisoners’ societies launched a campaign on social media titled “Save Mu’tasem” in three languages (Arabic, English and French). It aimed at briefing the world on the suffering of prisoner Raddad and other sick prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s detention camps, at uncovering the Israeli continuous crimes against the prisoners and at calling on the international community to pressure the occupation authorities to provide health care to the prisoners and release them.

Many Palestinians, Arabs and foreigners interacted positively with this campaign.

Hamda Mustafa