Sick Palestinian inmate dies of medical negligence in Israeli prison

A Palestinian prisoner has died of health complications he reportedly developed in Israeli jails as a result of "deliberate medical negligence.”

The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission announced that Sa’adi al-Gharably – a resident of the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City – died on Monday afternoon in the infamous Ramla prison hospital.

The 75-year-old was suffering from a number of health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure as well as poor hearing and eyesight, and had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

According to his family, Gharably had been denied family visits, and appeals to Israeli authorities to release him, especially after his health condition worsened dramatically over the past four months, had been turned down.

Palestinian campaigners call on Israel to protect Palestinian prisoners amid coronavirus pandemic

Palestinian campaigners call on Israel to provide adequate health care services to the Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli officials sentenced Gharably to life imprisonment after he was convicted of killing an Israeli officer in the city of Tel Aviv back in 1994.

He was reportedly the second longest-serving Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip after 80-year-old Fouad al-Shobaki, who is also suffering from cancer.

Gharably’s death brings to 224 the number of Palestinian inmates who have lost their lives in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 1967.

Last October, the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission reported that sick Palestinian prisoners in the Ramla prison hospital are facing a slow death on a daily basis because of their exposure to deliberate medical neglect.

According to the commission, nearly a dozen of the prisoners are in very serious health conditions and most of them cannot move without wheelchairs.

They also rely on other prisoners when taking shower, changing clothes, eating and drinking.

Palestinian political prisoners abused by Israel during COVID-19

Whilst the United States calls upon countries such as Iran, to release more prisoners from its jails during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Israel, the US’s self described closest ally is yet to release a single Palestinian political prisoner.

The commission then appealed to international human rights, legal and humanitarian organizations to urgently intervene to save the lives of sick prisoners in Israeli jails, and put an end to the Israeli officials’ policy of medical negligence against Palestinian prisoners.

More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.

Over 500 detainees are under the so-called administrative detention in various Israeli prisons. Some prisoners have been held in that condition for up to 11 years without any charges being brought against them.

Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israeli authorities to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months, which could be extended for an infinite number of times.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detentions.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk