Palestinian prisoner suffering from cancer loses ability to eat

A Palestinian prisoner diagnosed with cancer has lost the ability to eat after losing a significant amount of weight, reported the Wafa news agency.

Nasr Abu Hmeid, 49, is currently at Al-Ramla Prison clinic, suffering from severe pneumonia and is no longer responding to painkillers, which is the only medication he has been prescribed since the doctors stopped his chemotherapy.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC), his chemotherapy was stopped as the doctors claimed he had reached the last stages of his life.

Nasr, from Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, spent a total of 31 years in Israeli jails, as the first time he got arrested he was only 13 years. He was sentenced to seven life terms, plus 50 years.

He had gone into a coma earlier this year after suffering a severe inflammation of the lungs as a result of bacterial infection.

In August, the PLO Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Commission said a tumour detected in Nasser’s head was the result of Israeli Prisoner Service’s failure to deal with his health condition at an earlier stage.

It comes after a new report, published last week, explains how Israel has adopted a policy of medical negligence against Palestinian prisoners and this has led to “slow killing” in Israeli prisons.

The PPC stressed that “73 prisoners have been martyred in the Occupation’s prisons as a result of the policy of medical neglect (slow killing) since 1967.”

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In the report, the PPC stated that “crime of medical negligence, or slow killing, along with policy of torture, are the most prominent policies leading to the death of prisoners.”

It warned that “about 600 sick prisoners in the Occupation’s jails, who have been diagnosed with illnesses in the past few years, are facing difficult health conditions, including about 200 of whom who suffer from chronic diseases and could die at any moment.”

The organisation noted that the “prison administration relies on delaying the transfer of sick prisoners to hospitals for medical examinations, and this delay policy is the main tool it uses to kill sick prisoners.”

According to Palestinian figures, there are around 4,650 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, including at least 780 held without charge or trial.