The Palestinian Prisoner Club, on Thursday morning, held the Israeli occupation prisons administration fully responsible for the serious health condition of the detainee Farouk Ahmed Ismail al-Khatib (30 years), from the town of Abu shakhidim, northwest of Ramallah, last night, after he spent in his last arrest since August 2023, four months in administrative detention.

According to what the Palestinian Prisoner Club quoted in a statement about the family of the detainee Al-Khatib, their son did not suffer from any chronic diseases before his arrest, except for the problem of tachycardia, as a result of his first arrest, which lasted for four years, and he was released two months before his last arrest. 

Prisoner's club explained that Al-Khatib was subjected to a crime after his arrest, which consisted of being severely beaten by Al-Nahshon forces during his transfer from Ofer Prison to Ramla crossing, and later extended his continued administrative detention despite the aggravation of his serious health condition due to the medical crime carried out against him, in addition to assaulting him until he reached this dangerous stage. 

Over the past period, the prisoner Al-Khatib was detained in Nafha prison after being transferred from Ofer prison, and the longest period of his detention was until he was finally transferred to the Ramla prison clinic, and finally to Soroka Hospital, where he was released last night, through the Nilin military checkpoint. 

The club pointed out that it was supposed that the visit of the detainee Al-Khatib, on Thursday, by one of the lawyers after several claims took place, as the legal teams after the seventh of last October face significant obstacles in carrying out visits to prisoners and detainees in the occupation prisons. 

According to the same source, the case of detainee Al-Khatib is not the only one, such as detainees who were released from the occupation prisons and are in a serious and difficult health situation, over the decades, many sick prisoners rose after their release shortly after the systematic medical crimes committed against them. 

The escalation of occupation crimes against prisoners

In light of the escalation of aggression, systematic crimes, torture and abuse against prisoners and detainees after the seventh of last October, the risks to the fate of hundreds of prisoners are increasing, based on several facts transferred by freed prisoners, in addition to legal teams that were able to carry out limited visits, which confirms the serious and shocking level of the scale of these crimes.  

According to what the Palestinian Prisoner Club reviewed, the medical crimes against prisoners in their intensity after the seventh of October are an extension of the occupation's systematic policy of slow killings, of which medical crimes were one of the most prominent tools. 

After the seventh of last October, the prison administration stopped transferring sick prisoners who need intensive health follow-up to clinics. 

By a decision of the Israeli Ministry of Health and with the blessing of many medical staff, some hospitals and doctors refuse to treat Palestinian prisoners. The prison administration stopped transferring prisoners to hospitals except in very serious cases, which exacerbated the suffering of prisoners, especially with their denial of access even to the prison clinic.

It also deliberately did not provide treatment to hundreds of prisoners and detainees who were subjected to ill-treatment and torture and were left without any treatment despite their injuries, as reflected by dozens of testimonies of detainees who were finally released.

Many patients were subjected to repressions, transfers and abuse, the most prominent of these cases was the case of the prisoner Mansour Mottada, who was repressed and transferred from the Ramla prison clinic to Ofer prison, and his condition is one of the most difficult cases.

The occupation starves the prisoners and touches their lives

Sick prisoners in Israeli prisons face systematic starvation that directly affects their lives. The administration of the occupation prisons has doubly restricted the work of the legal teams in following up many medical files of chronically ill prisoners.

Medical equipment, such as glasses and crutches, were confiscated from some of the prisoners. People with diabetes and those who need special foods because of their health status face difficult and dangerous relapses. The prison administration canceled several examinations of many sick prisoners, which the prisoners had been waiting for a long time to conduct due to procrastination.

It is noteworthy that the numbers of sick and wounded prisoners are escalating with the continuous torture and starvation operations.