WEST BANK (MEMO/Middle East Eye) – Palestinian prisoners inside the Zionist regime’s jails face a ‘slow death’ as they have no access to proper medical treatment, Arab48.com has quoted a Palestinian official as saying.
The Zionist regime’s prison service (IPS) continues to ignore the suffering of ill prisoners and blocks them from receiving medication, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs said on Sunday.
It pointed out that prisoners simply receive painkillers from the IPS, regardless of their affliction, and are told to drink more water. “In addition to diagnostic mistakes,” noted the commission, “the policy deteriorates the prisoners’ health conditions.”
The PLO body cited a number of cases to illustrate the dire conditions of sick prisoners. Amjad Obaidi, for example, is 54 and from Zabboubeh neighborhood in Jenin. He is locked up in Shatta Prison and suffering from multiple hernias and acute arthritis. His health has deteriorated due to the conditions in which he is being held and the harsh treatment and lack of proper healthcare.
Maher Qawasmeh, 42, is from Al-Khalil and is suffering from severe infections and lesions on his legs after being bitten by a sand fly last year. Like Obaidi, his health has been deteriorating ever since as the IPS has only provided ointment, but has not carried out a thorough medical examination.
In another development, Jordanian prisoner Abdullah al-Barghouti, 50, has started an open-ended hunger strike protesting against his solitary confinement in an Israeli prison, Quds Press reported on Sunday.
According to his brother Raif, al-Barghouti and three others being held in the regime’s Rimon Prison have been placed in solitary confinement for allegedly smuggling a mobile phone.
His family pointed out that he suffers from “several” health issues, and holds the regime’s prison authorities entirely responsible for any deterioration that takes place.
Quds Press reported that the National Committee for Jordanian Prisoners and Missing Persons in Israeli Jails as saying that it is following up on Barghouti’s situation “closely” while he is in solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, the health condition of two other Palestinian prisoners in the occupying regime’s jails is critical after months of hunger strike in protest against the regime’s so-called administrative detention.
Khalil Awawdeh, 40, from the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil, has been on hunger strike for 102 days, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported on Sunday.
He is reported to be suffering from headaches, fatigue, blurry vision, joint pain, irregular heartbeat, frequent vomiting and significant loss of weight.
The other prisoner, Ra’ed Rayyan, 27, from the Beit Duqqu village, northwest of Al-Quds, has been on hunger strike for 67 days. He is also said to be suffering from serious health complications.