Palestinian Prisoner Dies of Israeli Medical Negligence

Procession held in Gaza for prisoner Saadi al-Gharably who died in an Israeli prison. AFP
Procession held in Gaza for prisoner Saadi al-Gharably who died in an Israeli prison. AFP
TT

Palestinian Prisoner Dies of Israeli Medical Negligence

Procession held in Gaza for prisoner Saadi al-Gharably who died in an Israeli prison. AFP
Procession held in Gaza for prisoner Saadi al-Gharably who died in an Israeli prison. AFP

The Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club announced that a Palestinian inmate, who has been in detention for 26 years, died on Wednesday of medical negligence.

The Club stated that Saadi al-Gharably, 75, died at Kaplan medical center after his health deteriorated due to mainly medical negligence.

Gharably had been sent to solitary confinement which aggravated his health condition.

A spokesman for the Israeli Prison Authority stated that Gharably was transferred Sunday to the Prison Authority Medical Center after his health deteriorated, and he died on Wednesday.

The prisoner suffered from a terminal illness and had been serving a life sentence since 1994 for killing an Israeli, added the spokesman.

Gharably is the second Palestinian prisoner who has died in Israeli prisons this year, after Nour Barghouti, 23, passed away in the Negev Prison for unknown reasons.

The head of the Palestinian Authority Prisoners' Affairs Commission, Qadri Abu Bakr, issued a statement indicating that the ongoing medical negligence will lead to the death of more inmates.

Abu Bakr called on international legal and rights institutions, especially the United Nations, to stop the crimes against the prisoners, saying the Prison Administration is fully responsible for “Gharably’s martyrdom.”

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said the incident is another crime against prisoners.

Member of the Executive Committee Wasel Abu Yousef urged the international community to pressure Israel to release the prisoners, especially the sick, the elderly, women, and children.

Hamas stressed that the crime against Gharably will only increase the determination of all Palestinian prisoners, while Islamic Jihad warned that medical negligence threaten the lives of other prisoners who are at risk of death at any moment due to this aggressive policy.

Palestinians say Israel’s policy of medical negligence has killed over 69 prisoners since 1967.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
TT

With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.