The Center of Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” documents an increase in the number of sick detainees with cancerous tumors and diseases, as the number rose to 23 detainees, many of which are serious cases, such as that of the prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid.
Hurryyat holds the Israeli prison administration responsible for those sick detainees and the increase in their number, as it continues its practice of medical negligence against male and female detainees, and refuses to conduct regular examinations on them as stipulated by Article 92 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This practice leads to delays in the discovery of disease, and hence a deterioration in prisoners’ health, prior to discovery. An evident case of that is the death of the ex-prisoner Ehab Zaid Al-Kilani in mid-May of this year, as a result of the sudden spread of cancer in his body, and the discovery of the disease after his release.
Hurryyat points to the drastic health state of the detainee Nasser Abu Hmaid who has lung cancer and has received three chemotherapy sessions and is awaiting the fourth. Abu Hamid’s health condition is deteriorating and he suffers from severe pain in the chest. He currently can’t breathe without an oxygen tube, and has to use a wheelchair to move. Hurryyat considers the medical negligence toward Abu Hamid a death sentence.
Concerning the detainee Iyad Natheer Omar, reports show that he suffers from a tumor behind one of his ears, and a weakness in his left lung. In August 2021, he underwent a surgery to remove a benign tumor from his brain. His health condition continues to deteriorate.
Hurryyat emphasizes the importance of putting pressure on the Occupation authorities to identify the medical condition of Yacoub Qadri, one of the freedom tunnel heroes, detained in Ohalay Kedar, especially after news came out that he suffers from a tumor. Qadri was assaulted seven months ago by “Nahshon’ unit inside the central court in Nazareth, and as a result he suffered from severe pains in his right hand and shoulder. Moreover, according to the X-ray examination he underwent recently, he has developed thyroid tumor, where the left side is ten times larger than the right side. This has caused him to live in constant concern and worry because of the prison administration’s procrastination in informing him of his real health condition. Now a biopsy is required, to be examined as soon as possible.
As for the detainee Fawaz Bara, he was diagnosed with cancer in the lymph nodes, and underwent a surgery, after which he started having trouble breathing. He is in need of another surgery to remove what was left from the tumor, and it’s a dangerous surgery that might cause him paralysis according to the doctors who have not carried out enough examinations to obtain the success rate of this surgery.
Hurryyat warns of the occupation authorities’ attempts to pass a law in Knesset that was put forward in the first reading; one that aims to charge the detainees’ families for the cost of their treatment, in the case that the prison administration allows detainees’ the receipt of treatment. By passing and applying such law, the Israeli authorities is violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and all human rights standards and conventions. Hurryyat also emphasizes that the arrests, interrogation, torture of detainees, and the harsh conditions they live under and are subjected to inside Israeli prisons, starting from solitary confinement, repression, and abuse of prisoners, to the crime of medical negligence in diagnosis and treatment, are all the main factors behind the development of diseases, their symptoms and the difficulty to treat them.
Hurryyat views the deterioration of the health situation in Israeli occupation prisons and the increase in the numbers of sick detainees especially those who suffer from cancerous tumors, as a serious danger that requires immediate action from all human rights and international organizations, particularly the United Nations, International Red Cross and World Health Organization. Hurryyat also demands the formation of an international medical committee responsible for visiting the Israeli prisons and reporting all forms of violations of detainees’ rights, in order to expose the Israeli occupation and its oppressive policies, as well as to hold it accountable and pressure it to put an end to the policy of medical negligence and release sick detainees before it’s too late.