A cancer-stricken Palestinian prisoner who has contracted COVID-19 is in a serious condition, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said on July 16, Wednesday. The prisoner, Kamal Abu Wa’ar, reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 at the Israeli Assaf Harofeh medical center last week. He was earlier lodged in the Gilboa prison where he was serving a life sentence. Adding that the prisoner, who suffers from throat cancer, is in a serious condition and is fighting for his life, the PPS said that more detailed information is not known about the prisoner at the moment.
Israeli prison authorities have reportedly refused to divulge any detailed information about the prisoner’s condition. The only information that they have given to the PPS and to his family is that Kamal is currently on intubation and that he will remain asleep for an unknown number of days under the influence of heavy medication. The PPS has issued an urgent appeal to international organizations and medical charities such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), asking them to intervene in the case in order to save Kamal’s life. The PPS has also said that it holds the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) squarely responsible for the life and physical health of Kamal, as well as of all the other Palestinian prisoners and detainees currently being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
Just over two weeks ago, a 75-year-old Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody at the Assaf Harofeh medical center. Saadi Al-Gharabli, who was in Israeli prisons for the last 26 years after being arrested in 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment, was suffering from a myriad of serious health issues. The most serious of these, which was diagnosed recently, was prostrate cancer. He was also suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as deteriorating eyesight, impaired hearing and extremely weakened heart muscles.
Gharabli, who was held in the Eshel prison in Israel’s Southern Negev desert, was taken to the medical center at Ramla prison after his health condition deteriorated. He was reportedly in a coma in the days leading up to his death. The PPS also accused the Israeli prison authorities of not paying heed to the repeated appeals by them to take him to a clinic sooner. His health had been deteriorating over the past four months.
According to Gharabli’s son, Issam al-Gharabli, the prisoner’s family was not allowed to visit him since 2000. Gharabli was also reportedly kept in excruciating solitary confinement until 2006, where the PPS alleges he developed many of his health problems due to the lack of proper food, exercise, medical care, as well as other forms of intimidation and physiological and psychological torture.
224 Palestinian prisoners have died under Israeli custody since 1967, with five of those dying this year itself. As per Palestinian figures, there are currently 950 Palestinians prisoners who are sick or seriously unwell and in need of round-the-clock specialized medical care. Over 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in the various Israeli jails and detention centers. Out of these, 51 have been held in Israeli prisons for more than 20 years. As many as 26 of them were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
