Palestinian Commission affirms the deterioration of health condition of 18 sick prisoners in Israeli jails

OCCUPIED Al-QUDS, Jun.15, (ST)- Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, one of the Freedom Tunnel heroes, is still going on a hunger strike in solidarity with the two striking prisoners, Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan, and in protest against the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the prisoners.

WAFA News Agency quoted the lawyer at the Prisoners Affairs Commission Fawwaz Shlodi as saying that Al-Zubaidi, 45 years old,  has been on hunger strike for the 10th  day, in solidarity with the two prisoners, Khalil Awawdeh, the striker for the 105th day, and Raed Rayan, the striker for the 70th day.

Despite the deterioration of their health, the occupation authorities refuse to transfer the two prisoners, Awwada and Rayan, to the hospital in an attempt to pressure them to stop their strike. It also refuses to release them, despite the appeals of the Palestinian prisoners’ institutions to the Red Cross and the international institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs to intervene to save their lives.

Prisoner Al-Zubaidi, who has been detained since 2019, is one of the six prisoners who were able to obtain their freedom on the sixth of last September through a tunnel they dug in Gilboa prison before the occupation re-arrested them after a prosecution that lasted for days.

In the same context, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission affirmed the deterioration of the  health condition of 18 sick prisoners, who are being held by the Israeli occupation in the Ramle detention camp, amid difficult health conditions and a lack of the minimum necessary medical ingredients.

Wafa news agency quoted the commission as saying that among the cases being held in the aforementioned detention camp is the prisoner Raed Rayan, who suffers from pain in the head and joints and pressure in his eyes and complains of severe fatigue and vomiting continuously, can not walk and moves in a wheelchair, and continues to refuse to receive any kind of medical treatment.

The commission indicated that that the prisoner, Nour El-Din Jerboa, suffers from a hole in his back that has not healed so far besides a decrease in the amount of blood and vitamins in his body, while the prisoner Jamal Zaid suffers from kidney problems and the effects of a previous stroke, and he needs to take a fluidic drug regularly; moreover, he suffers from gout, pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and irregular heartbeat, which require regular medication.

“The prisoners who suffer from severe chronic diseases such as cancer and heart patients and the disabled are in Ramle prison, and their health conditions are deliberately neglected by the occupation authorities as part of the slow death policy that they follow against the prisoners, which resulted in the death of dozens inside the prisons or shortly after releasing them,” the commission concluded.

 Basma Qaddour