A press release issued by the MOH -Gaza on the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day
Palestinian Prisoners suffer from medical neglect in Israeli prisons.
Palestinian prisoners still suffer from the most heinous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against them. They are deprived of their basic rights as Palestinian prisoners, they suffer from injustice and persecution, and violation of international norms and covenants, which includes the Fourth Geneva Convention and international and human rights resolutions.
On this day, when we stand to commemorate Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, as part of the activities of (Prisoners’ Shield of Al-Aqsa), 4,750 prisoners, including 29 female prisoners, 160 children, and 700 patients, are still living in indescribable conditions.
Medical negligence is one of the worst forms of violating prisoners’ rights, where they are subjected to torture in the Ramla prison clinic. We do not forget those who died as martyrs while shackled to sick beds and those who were left to face the worst diseases alone in the dark isolation rooms; there is a record of the death of 76 prisoners as a result of the policy of medical negligence.
The last martyr of medical negligence was the prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, and today 700 sick prisoners are facing an unknown fate, led by the prisoner Walid Daqqa, who suffers from bone marrow cancer, as he underwent surgery to remove part of his lung yesterday in difficult health conditions, as well as the prisoner Sheikh Khader Adnan, who he has been on an open hunger strike for more than two months in difficult health conditions.
The Israeli occupation did not stop at this point. However, it continued its crime against the prisoners who were martyred behind bars, as it is still holding the bodies of 12 martyrs in defiance of international covenants and the International Declaration of Human Rights.
We, in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, share with our brave prisoners their suffering and the darkness of the policy of medical negligence and the slow killing policy against them, we affirm our support and stand by their legitimate rights, mainly by providing urgent and specialized treatment opportunities for sick prisoners, especially for cancer patients, the elderly, children, and women.
We also call on international organizations, led by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to stand up to their responsibilities and stop the policy of slow killing practised by the Prison Service against our sick prisoners, with direct follow-up from our doctors.
Ministry of Health calls on the international community, the free people of the world, and human rights, international and humanitarian institutions to take immediate measures to release the bodies of the martyred prisoners held by the Israeli occupation.
Palestinian Ministry of Health
Gaza strip
April 12, 2023