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Palestinian prisoner dies after medical neglect in Israel prison

April 22, 2020 at 3:46 pm

23-year-old Palestinian prisoner Jaber Al-Barghouthi, 22 April 2020 [Twitter]

A 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner from Ramallah died in the Israeli Negev prison this morning following a delay in the provision of medical aid, according to Wafa news agency.

Jaber Al-Barghouthi fell unconscious while in the bathroom and the prison administration took more than half an hour to provide medical assistance, and only after his fellow prisoners started to shout and scream for assistance.

The prisoner was later pronounced dead, confirmed the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).

The PPS said it holds the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) responsible for Al-Baghouthi’s deatth, accusing the administration of intentionally stalling its medical response.

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It added that the detainee from Aboud town, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, was abducted by occupation forces four years ago and sentenced to eight years in prison.

At the time of his death, he had served four years of his sentence at the Israeli Negev prison, located in what Israel deems “a military zone” in the south of the Negev Desert near the Egyptian border.

The head of the Palestinian Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees Committee, Qadri Abu Bakr, called out Israel on several violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights.

He said that in addition to the torture used during Israeli interrogations of Palestinians, detainees were also denied professional medical attention in Israeli prisons.

Al-Barghouthi is the 273rd Palestinian to die in Israeli prisons since Israel’s 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem.