WEST BANK (Dispatches) –
Hundreds of Palestinians have held a demonstration in the city of Ramallah to protest the Zionist regime’s continued detention of a cancer-stricken Palestinian prisoner, Wafa news agency reported.
The protesters waved Palestinian flags and banners calling for Nasser Abu Hamid’s immediate release due to his critical health condition, exacerbated by the regime’s policy of medical negligence, the agency reported.
The cancer-stricken Palestinian prisoner could die “any moment” as Zionist regime prison officials refuse to free him so he can spend the last days of his life with his family, Palestinian officials say, holding the occupying regime fully responsible for the deterioration of his health condition.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, which is based in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, warned that Abu Hamid is wrestling with death as the Zionist regime’s prison service (IPS) continues to refuse to provide him with necessary medical care.
Spokesman for the Commission Hasan Abd Rabbo said Abu Hamid had not received any dose of chemotherapy for two months because his body became so weak that he was no longer able to respond to cancer drugs.
The 49-year-old is serving seven life sentences and an additional 50 years in prison for activism in favor of Palestinians’ freedom from decades-long Zionist occupation and aggression.
He began suffering from a life-threatening condition in his lungs a few months ago, but the IPS refused to allow him to receive medical attention in time.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said on Saturday that 73 freedom fighters have died from medical negligence in the Zionist regime’s jails, who were among 231 Palestinians died while incarcerated in the occupied territories since 1967.
“The crime of medical negligence and torture were the most prominent policies that led to the death of prisoners,” the PPS said in a statement.
It said some 600 Palestinians doing time in the occupation regime’s prisons have been diagnosed over the past years with serious illnesses, including about 200 suffering from chronic diseases. Among them, there are 23 prisoners with tumors and cancer of various degrees, the most serious is Nasser Abu Hamid, who is at risk of death at any moment.
The PPS accused the regime of intentionally stalling in transferring ill prisoners, mainly those diagnosed with cancer, to hospitals in order to speed up their death, adding that many cancer patients were not informed of their situation until cancer had reached an advanced and deadly stage.
Zionist prisons hold thousands of Palestinians, many of whom have been jailed in line with the occupying regime’s “administrative detention” policy, which allows it to incarcerate inmates without any charge or trial.