Cancer-stricken Palestinian dies in Zionist regime’s jail after medical negligence
A Palestinian abductee from Jenin refugee camp, north of the West Bank, has martyred in Zionist regime’s prison after suffering untreated medical complications, rights groups said, confirming prolonged neglect by prison authorities.
In a joint statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said 49-year-old Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, who had been held behind bars since February 1, died at Shamir Medical Center, formerly Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, in the city of Be’er Ya’akov.
The rights groups noted that Abdullah’s health condition deteriorated severely following his abduction, and it was later confirmed that he was suffering from cancer.
He was transferred from Megiddo Prison to Gilboa Prison, and later to the Ramla Prison Clinic.
Despite medical examinations confirming that he had cancer in an advanced stage, Israeli officials refused to release him.
They kept him in detention until he died one day after being transferred to Shamir Medical Center.
The statement said Abdullah also spent two years in Israeli jails following his abduction during the al-Aqsa Intifada (Uprising) in 2002.
Before his abduction earlier this year, he was undergoing treatment for existing health conditions, but his abduction prevented him from continuing his medical care.
The advocacy groups stated that Abdullah’s death adds to the series of crimes carried out by the occupying Israeli regime against Palestinian abductees held illegally in Israeli jails, as part of its ongoing genocidal war.
They emphasized that testimonies from hundreds of former abductees document systematic torture and abuse, which constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The PPS said that Abdullah was the 79th Palestinian known to have died in Israeli imprisonment since October 2023, after the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza began, noting that dozens more people have been subjected to enforced disappearances.
According to Addameer, the Palestinian Centre for Prisoners’ Studies, at least 10,400 Palestinians are currently held illegally in Israeli prisons, including 3,300 administrative abductees held without charge or trial. The abductees include 320 children and 88 women.
The conditions under which Israel holds Palestinian abductees are deplorable, with insufficient hygienic standards.
Additionally, Palestinian abductees have faced ongoing torture, harassment, and repression.
Palestinian abductees have persistently engaged in open-ended hunger strikes to convey their anger regarding their unlawful detention.
Human rights organizations assert that Israel persists in infringing upon all rights and freedoms afforded to abductees under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws.
As reported by the Palestine Detainees Studies Center, approximately 60 percent of Palestinian abductees held in Zionist regime’s jails are afflicted with chronic illnesses, with several of them having died either during their detention or following their release as a result of the severity of their conditions.