RAMALLAH, Thursday, September 3, 2020 (WAFA) – A Palestinian prisoner serving an 18-year sentence in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation has died last night of a heart attack several months before completing his sentence, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).
It said in a statement that Daoud Talaat Khatib, 45, from Bethlehem, passed away while at Ofer Prison and Detention Center near Ramallah.
Khatib suffered from bad health during his arrest and in 2017 had a heart attack but that apparently the dismal health conditions in the Israeli prisons and medical negligence by the Israel Prison Services have contributed to the deterioration of his health until his death, said the PPS and the Palestinian Prisoners Commission.
Khatib was scheduled to complete his sentence and be freed on December 4.
It is not clear if or when Israel is going to turn his body over to his family for burial since previously Israel has kept bodies of Palestinians who died in its prisons as a future bargaining chip.
The PPS said tension was high at Ofer prison following reports of the death of Khatib and that prisoners have clashed with the prison guards, who raided the cells and attacked the prisoners.
It said 850 Palestinian prisoners, some of them minors, are held in Ofer and lately there were reports of coronavirus cases among at least five prisoners.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Commission, 225 Palestinians have died while in Israeli custody or as a result of it since 1967, the start of the Israeli occupation.
M.K.
