WEST BANK (Middle East Eye) – Since her cancer-stricken imprisoned son went into a coma in the Zionist regime’s custody on 4 January, Latifa Abu Humaid has been waiting anxiously for updates.
“I don’t know anything about Nasser,” Abu Humaid told Middle East Eye. “My only request today is to check up on him and to be by his side.”
Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Humaid, 49, was taken to hospital last week after a “medical mistake” caused his health to deteriorate, pushing him into a coma.
The change comes five months after he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his lungs.
Since the tumor was discovered, Nasser has suffered medical negligence in prison, which led to the rapid decline of his health, according to the monitoring group The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).
“What is happening with Abu Humaid is the result of the systematic policies he was subjected to over the years, on top of which is the policy of medical negligence or slow death,” PPS said on in a statement.
The latest deterioration in Nasser’s health came as a shock to his 73-year-old mother, Latifa.
“We were surprised by the news of Nasser falling into a coma and the deterioration of his health,” she said.
Latifa, who organizes daily activities at the Amari refugee camp in occupied Ramallah to demand treatment for her son, visited Nasser in prison following his excision surgery. At the time, he told her that 12 chemotherapy sessions had been scheduled for him.
“Israel is imposing an information blackout on Nasser, and this increases our concern for him,” she said.
Four other sons of Latifa are in the Zionist regime’s prisons: Nasr, 47, Sharif, 45, Mohammad, 38, and Islam, 35. All of them are sentenced to life. She said she does not have much faith in the occupying regime to release them soon, but remains hopeful she will see them one day.
“We have consistently demanded that human rights groups take action, but Israel does not answer to any legal human rights demands. It has become accustomed to taking from us and not giving,” she said.
“Today, I hope that the Palestinian resistance will return my sons to me before I lose one of them, and before I die without seeing them.”