The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies reported that the captive movement presented 4 martyrs this year in the occupation prisons, all of whom were martyred as a result of the medical negligence policy.
The director of the center, researcher Riyad Al-Ashqar, stated that the number of martyrs of the captive movement since 1967 has reached 226, among them (71) as a result of a policy of medical negligence, (73) as a result of torture, and (75) as a result of intentional killing immediately after arrest, and ( 7) Prisoners who were killed by bullets while they were inside prisons.
Al-Ashqar indicated that four of the prisoners were martyred during the current year, the first being the prisoner Nour Rashad al-Barghouti (23 years), from the village of Aboud, Ramallah district, who was killed in April in the Negev Desert Prison after he was exposed to a severe coma and the prison administration was late in transferring him. And refresh it for more than half an hour. He was arrested in February 2017, and the occupation has sentenced him to an effective prison term of 8 years, and his body is still being held.
The second martyr is the prisoner Saadi Khalil al-Gharabli (75 years), a resident of the Shejaiya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, who was killed last July, after being arrested for 26 years, while he was serving a life sentence.
Al-Ashqar indicated that the martyr Al-Gharabli was arrested in 1994, and was subjected to solitary confinement for more than 12 years continuously, which led to his infection with many chronic diseases, and his health has deteriorated recently and he suffered from cancerous tumors in the prostate and urinary tract, and the occupation refused to release him. Until he entered into a state of clinical death and died in Kaplan Hospital, and the occupation is still holding his body and refuses to hand it over to his family.
And the third martyr is the captive Dawood Talaat Al-Khatib (41 years) from the city of Bethlehem. He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He has served most of his sentence and was supposed to be released on the fourth of December. He died just three months before his freedom due to medical negligence.
Al-Ashqar pointed out that the prisoner´s health has declined in recent years, and he had a heart attack in August 2017 as a result of medical negligence while he was in Raymond prison, and he did not receive adequate medical care or follow-up on the development of his disease, and the occupation refused to release him exceptionally. Although he only had several months left, which led to a severe heart attack in Ofer prison at the beginning of September, he was killed as a result, and the occupation refused to hand over his body.
The last martyr of the captive movement this year was the captive Kamal Najeeb Abu Wa´er (46 years) from the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after 17 and a half years of arrest, where he was serving a life sentence repeated 6 times, and during his detention he suffered from throat and vocal tendon cancer in addition to To breakage of blood platelets.
The prisoner Abu Waer suffered from cancer in the larynx since the beginning of the year 2019, and his health declined rapidly as a result of not receiving any appropriate treatment, and he was infected with the Corona virus last July, and five months before his death he had a new cancerous tumor in the larynx that made him lose the ability to speak And eat.
On the tenth of November, the prisoner Abu Waer suffered a new health setback, and he was urgently transferred to the “Asaf Harofeh” hospital, where he announced his death in the afternoon, and until this moment his body is still being held by the occupation and he is refusing to hand it over to his family.
Al-Ashqar emphasized that the series of murder against the prisoners is still continuing, and that the door is still open for more martyrs among the prisoners to rise, and that the number of martyrs of the captive movement will not stop at 226, as there are dozens of prisoners suffering from very difficult health conditions, as a result of their cancer And kidney failure, strokes and other serious diseases, and no adequate treatment or medical care is provided to them.
The director of the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies pointed out the grave danger for prisoners as a result of the Corona pandemic, which threatens their lives continuously in light of the lack of protection and prevention measures taken by the occupation and neglecting their lives, indicating that 137 prisoners have been infected with the virus so far.
Al-Ashqar called for the formation of an impartial investigation committee to look into the circumstances of the prisoners ’martyrdom behind and outside bars, and to put pressure on the occupation to stop the slow killing it is practicing against them, so that the specter of death does not keep abducting them continuously.
