RAMALLAH, Wednesday, July 15, 2020 (WAFA) – The health condition of a cancer-stricken Palestinian detainee in an Israeli jail could deteriorate, warned the Prisoners Affairs Commission on Wednesday.
The Commission warned in a press release that 46-year-old Nidal Abu ‘Ahour, 46, currently in the Israeli prison of al-Ramleh, could face imminent health deterioration as he has been recently diagnosed with kidney cancer and long been suffering from kidney failure.
It elaborated that Abu ‘Ahour, who only has one kidney, has been subject to violent interrogations conducted by the Israeli intelligence despite his illnesses.
It pointed out that an attorney representing Abu ‘Ahour has submitted a request to the Israeli military court at Ofer, a notorious detention facility, west of Ramallah, demanding Abu ‘Ahour’s urgent release due to his health condition, but the request was rejected.
The statement added that an appeal was submitted and a court hearing will be held tomorrow, Thursday, in this regard.
Abu A‘hour, a father of seven children, was detained during a military raid from his home in Bethlehem city on June 23rd, and is still detained.
Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
The US State Department has said in past reports on human rights conditions for Palestinians that administrative detainees are not given the “opportunity to refute allegations or address the evidentiary material presented against them in court.”
Amnesty International has described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and has long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
Deliberate medical negligence is a common punitive measure used against Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. It is one of the commonly cited motivations for hunger strikers protesting the dismal and cruel conditions endured by detained Palestinians.
K.T./ K.F.
