RAMALLAH, Monday, September 09, 2019 (WAFA) – Palestinian prisoners in Israel refused to accept their meals this morning to protest the death of fellow inmate Bassam Sayeh, 46, who died yesterday of cancer while in custody. At the same time, Palestinian officials held Israel responsible for his death due to what they charged was medical negligence.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Authorities’ Prisoners’ Commission, Hasan Abed Rabbo, said the prisoners refused to accept their meals this morning and turned them back as they observed three days of mourning for the death of Sayeh.

He said the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) brought reinforcements to the prisons to quell any possible protest.

Commission director, Qadri Abu Bakr, told WAFA that the Prisoners Commission is going to petition the Israeli High Court demanding the IPS to release Sayeh’s body for burial in his hometown of Nablus in the north of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh wrote on his Facebook page that he considers the death of Sayeh as “premeditated murder due to medical negligence in the occupation prisons.”

Saeb Erekat, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a tweet, “We hold the Israeli government fully responsible” for Sayeh’s death and called upon the International Criminal Court to begin an immediate investigation in to his death. “Israeli officials must be held accountable,” he wrote.

Sayeh died yesterday in an Israeli hospital. He was arrested on October 8, 2015 for alleged involvement in the killing of settlers even though he was not convicted. He has had cancer since 2011 and leukemia since 2013. Palestinians say he was not given proper medical care while in prison, which caused his death.

M.K.