Report: 60 Palestinian prisoners died due to improper healthcare in Israel prisons

Some 219 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli detention since 1967, rights groups have said, noting that 60 died due to improper healthcare, 78 were intentionally murdered, 74 tortured to death and seven were shot to death, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

Based on interviews with directors of several rights groups fighting for the rights of Palestinian and Arab prisoners, Safa said that there are 750 male and female Palestinian prisoners who are in need to medical care currently being held in Israeli jails.

It said that the Palestinian prisoners are subjected to torture during investigations and this continues throughout their time in prison through intentional medical negligence.

Early this month, two Palestinian prisoners were pronounced dead while in Israeli jails. Both, Safa reported, died after suffering from several diseases. One of them, Fares Baroud, spent 28 years in prisons. Days before his death, he told his family he was denied urgent medical treatment.

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Director of the Prisoners’ Centre for Studies Raafat Hamdouna said that the Israeli policy of medical negligence is composed of four elements: intentional lack of proper medical examination, lack of proper medicines, lack of laboratory tests and postponing urgent surgeries.

He also said that the Israeli authorities prevent the Palestinian Ministry of Health from dispatching medicines to Palestinian prisoners.

Director of Defence of Freedoms and Civil Rights Centre, Helmi Al-Araj, added that there are 750 prisoners inside Israeli jails who are in need of treatment, including 170 suffering serious diseases – 16 cancer.

He also said that this number includes 87 male and female prisoners, who were wounded after 2015, some of them were shot with live ammunition after they were arrested.

According to the numbers given by the rights groups, there are more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in 22 Israeli jails, including 250 children, 49 women and girls. Some 26 are serving life terms .