Hebron – Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Abu Ali, 48, returned with a frozen body lying on a coffin, after spending nearly 10 years in prison away from his wife and nine children in the city of Yatta in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, two years before his release is due.
The martyr's patience for many years on the pains, and when the diseases worsened and his heart was shaken, he was transferred tied hands and legs to the Israeli Soroka Hospital, and there he breathed his last on the tenth of last February, leaving behind hundreds of prisoners like him.
Abu Ali suffered from the "slow killing" policy of "medical negligence" practiced by the Israeli prison administrations against Palestinian prisoners, especially the estimated 600 patients, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
The fate of Abu Ali, and before him Nasser Abu Hamid, is what the wife of the prisoner Ali Al-Hroub (50 years old) and his seven children fear most, from the town of Deir Samit, west of Hebron, who was arrested healthy and intact and then cancerous tumors invaded his body.
Press Coverage| Prisoners' Club: "The occupation hands over the body of the prisoner Ahmed Abu Ali from the city of Yatta, who rose on February 10 after years of slow killing through medical negligence." pic.twitter.com/m8p8ohZPgN
— Palinfo (@PalinfoAr) March 26, 2023
Tumors that necrosis the body
Jihan Al-Hroub (wife of the prisoner Ali Al-Hroub) said in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that the suffering of the prisoner began in 2015, when tumors began to appear in his chest and in the lymph nodes without finding treatment except painkillers in the prison clinic for more than two years.
Al-Hroub, a father of four sons and three daughters, was arrested in June 4 and sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment for participating with others in a commando operation and moved between several prisons.
After the illness worsened and his lawyer intervened, the administration of "Raymond" prison transferred the prisoner of war to Barzlai Hospital, and conducted tests that proved that he had cancer, and later he had a number of glands removed throughout his body, especially the abdomen, back and spine, and then returned to prison.
Al-Hroub's wife adds that the disease did not stop after removing the affected parts of the body, but spread more widely and throughout his body, and under media and political pressure that lasted for more than a year, Al-Hroub was transferred – 3 months ago – from the Negev prison, where he is currently located, to the hospital for tests, and it was found that the cancer returned to him and his need for radiological sessions, so he was transferred to the hospital and returned to prison without receiving the necessary medical care.
Al-Hroub's lawyer conveyed to his family that the prisoner had embarked on a chemotherapy program in prison, as well as given drugs and treatments whose name or effectiveness he did not know, and that he received a threat from the prison administration after filing a complaint with human rights organizations about what he was experiencing.
A month ago, his wife last visited the wars, and she says he was completely changed, his body was swollen, his hair was falling, his face was pale and exhausted, and he could barely walk and stand.
📌 The Prisoners' Club holds the occupation responsible for the fate of the prisoner Ali Al-Harb after the emergence of a new tumor has
more about the issue of the prisoner Ali Al-Hroub👇https://t.co/DODekRwPz3 pic.twitter.com/tNJUZBoB4Y
— Prisoner's Society (@PpsmoMedia) January 15, 2023
Waiting for the tragic news
Today, what Jihan and the sons and daughters of the prisoner fear most is that the tragic news will come to them, and that the husband and father will die at any moment, and the wife adds, "We were asking Arab institutions and countries and waiting for a deal to release him, and today we demand to provide treatment for him and release him, and we fear that we will receive the news of his martyrdom, and we begin the journey of demanding the delivery of his body."
The prisoner's wife addresses Hamas in particular, which is capturing Israeli soldiers and demanding that it do what it can to release her husband and other sick prisoners.
As for Muhammad, the prisoner's son, his wish is that his father be released and that he live with the family during the month of Ramadan, which he has not been able to fast for three years due to illness, while his son Jihad (3 years old) demands that he be released so that the family can treat him.
The son of a prisoner of war wishes the release of his father so that the family can treat him (Al Jazeera Net)
24 cancer patients
According to the Prisoners' Club, the number of prisoners who have been martyred in prisons has reached 235 martyrs since 1967, including 75 as a result of the crime of medical negligence, and others killed during or after detention, in addition to dozens of released prisoners who rose as a result of diseases inherited from prisons.
In total, 600 Palestinian prisoners, out of approximately 4700,200, suffer from various diseases, including 24 suffering from chronic diseases whose condition requires constant follow-up, of whom <> suffer from cancer and tumors of various degrees.
According to the same source, 4 prisoners are currently undergoing chemotherapy, biological or radiation, and they are - in addition to the wars - Asif Al-Rifai from Ramallah, which is the most difficult case, Walid Daqqa from Arab 48 with spinal cord cancer, and Musa Soufan from Tulkarm with lung cancer.
The data indicate that a group of prisoners have cancer and tumors to a lesser extent and need constant follow-up, including Abdul Basit Maatan from Ramallah, Jamal Omar from Hebron, Yacoub Qadri from Jenin, and Ibrahim Abu Mokh from Arab 48.
The club says that other prisoners have been diagnosed with cancer and parts of the injury site have been removed, and they are under follow-up, and their names are Muwaffaq Orouk, Yasser Rabaya, Fawaz Baara, Imad Abu Ramuz, and Iyad Nazir Omar.
Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners: We view with great seriousness the increasing rate of cancer among prisoners, and we see that the occupation is the first and main cause of this noticeable increase in infected prisoners. pic.twitter.com/17ZMz0zHv8
— QudsFeed Network (@quds_feed) February 19, 2023
Laws legalizing murder
According to Amjad al-Najjar, media spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, the occupation authorities punish prisoners and deprive them of treatment according to a law recently issued by the Knesset, among more than 20 laws targeting Palestinian prisoners in recent years.
Al-Najjar told Al Jazeera Net that the Knesset approved the preliminary reading on February 23 / February last legislation stipulating the deprivation of prisoners of treatment and surgeries and what they consider non-essential medical treatments improve living conditions, "and this outlet and more than actually before the adoption of the law."
The media spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club pointed out that the Knesset approved in preliminary reading on March 15 a bill allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis, and approved on February 48 in the second and third readings a bill that allows the revocation of Israeli citizenship or the revocation of the residency of any Palestinian prisoner who receives financial allowances from the Palestinian Authority, meaning Arabs <> and Jerusalem.
Najjar said the Jewish Power party, led by Israeli Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, had introduced the laws, "but the prisoners will not allow him to pass them."
Last Thursday, Palestinian prisoners suspended a hunger strike they had threatened in response to measures imposed by Ben Gvir aimed at restricting them, after an agreement to suspend those measures.