Deliberate medical negligence of health conditions in Israeli jails amid Corona pandemic exacerbates the Palestinian prisoners’ suffering

Deliberate medical negligence of health conditions in the Israeli occupation jails has exacerbated the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners and led to the deterioration of the health situation of more than 1800 Palestinian captives, some of who have dangerous diseases.

This health situation has become worse in the light of the outbreak of the Coronavirus inside the prisons, a danger that threatens prisoners’ lives as the international community continues to ignore the Palestinians’ calls for pressuring the occupation to release the prisoners.

The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority revealed that 200 prisoners have been infected with the virus since the beginning of 2021. The new cases raise the total number of infections to about 340, most of them in the Negev and Rimon prisons.

 The prisoners’ authority warned of the serious health situation in the occupation jails in light of the rapid spread of the Corona pandemic among prisoners, especially the sick, the elderly and the children, who originally suffer from the harsh conditions of detention. It clarified that this dangerous situation requires urgent action by international humanitarian organizations, human rights bodies and the Red Cross to save these prisoners’ lives and release them.    

 Head of the Studies and Documentation Unit at the Prisoners’ Authority, Abdel Nasser Farawneh expressed concern over the lives of the prisoners as a result of the occupation’s insistence on preventing the prisoners’ families and relatives from visiting them and its reluctance to provide them with the necessary medicines in light of the coronavirus and the rise in the number of infections. He stressed that this behavior clearly indicates the occupation’s intention to exacerbate the prisoners’ health conditions, in a flagrant violation of international conventions relating to the protection of prisoners.

He pointed out that the occupation authorities isolate Corona-infected prisoners within harsh conditions and don’t provide them with suitable medicine, urging the international community to send an international medical team to follow up the conditions of the prisoners.

On his part, Member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmed Abu Al-Saud said that the occupation works to spread the virus among the prisoners intentionally as part of the slow death policy it adopts towards the Palestinian prisoners.

Abu Al-Saud made it clear that there are 4500 Palestinian prisoners in the occupation jails, including 180 children and 39 women. Some 1800 of these prisoners suffer from different diseases, including 700 prisoners who have cancer, kidney failure and paraplegia and who need urgent treatment.

He stressed that neglecting the treatment of prisoners in the light of the Corona pandemic leads to the exacerbation of their health conditions and it constitutes a new war crime by the occupation against the Palestinians.

 Hamda Mustafa