Israel stops medical treatment for Palestinian prisoners

Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons are being denied medical care, resulting in sick prisoners being left without access to clinics or hospitals.

In a joint statement today, the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club expressed grave concern about the detrimental measures imposed by Israel, impacting the well-being of Palestinian detainees including the deprivation of essential necessities like water, food, electricity and medical treatment.

These measures are part of a broader strategy of isolation and the relentless act of collective punishment against inmates, it stated.

The statement further emphasises that one of the most damaging moves affecting prisoners’ lives is the refusal to transport sick inmates to clinics or hospitals, halting their medical care.

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Moreover, there are fears of disease outbreaks due to the Israeli prison administration neglecting the removal of waste from prisoners’ cells. Additionally, water access to inmates has been severely restricted, with water supply durations significantly reduced, including in the Negev prison.

Palestinian prisoners in most facilities have also been denied the use of designated shower facilities, and have had clothes confiscated during raids by Israeli prison authorities have left inmates with only one spare change of attire.

The Israeli prison authorities’ moves come amid the government’s wider tactic of imposing a total siege on the Gaza Strip and cutting off all electricity, water, food, fuel and aid supplies to the territory as the occupation’s military carries out a brutal bombing and air strike campaign on Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population.

Out of the 5,250 prisoners, there are reportedly 39 female prisoners and over 170 children, making the risk they face far more severe.

The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and Palestinian Prisoners’ Club stated that, in addition to cutting off water, food and electricity supplies, the Israeli occupation authorities attacked the prisoners by beating them severely during the raids. The organsiations also condemned the conditions faced by detainees in prisons as one of the “most severe and systematic instances of collective punishment in decades.”

They reiterated their urgent call to the international community to intervene and put an end to these crimes, including a direct call for action at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

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