Palestine prisoner loses eye sight after being assaulted by Israel soldiers

A 25-year-old Palestinian has lost his sight in the right eye after the Israeli Occupation Forces assaulted him during his arrest at his family’s house, earlier this year, reported Wafa news agency.

According to the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, the Israeli soldiers beat Mohammad Masarwa with rifle butts on his head and forehead in his home, based in the West Bank’s occupied city of Tulkarem, resulting in a severe head injury which caused loss of vision in his right eye.

In a statement, the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs explained that Masarwa was scheduled to undergo an eye operation this month; however, the Israel Prison Services cancelled the operation due to his sentence which will be finishing next year, for resisting the Occupation.

It added that Masarwa is currently suffering from severe stomach pains and that he was also being supplied medication for a short period, until the Israeli prison clinic stopped it without any reason.

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

The Palestinian Prisoners Club (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 a 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 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 being held without charge or trial.