25 Cases of COVID-19 Among Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Prison

Palestinian women wearing protective face mask walks beside Israeli officers in Jerusalem. Reuters.
Palestinian women wearing protective face mask walks beside Israeli officers in Jerusalem. Reuters.
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25 Cases of COVID-19 Among Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Prison

Palestinian women wearing protective face mask walks beside Israeli officers in Jerusalem. Reuters.
Palestinian women wearing protective face mask walks beside Israeli officers in Jerusalem. Reuters.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) announced Sunday that 25 new COVID-19 cases were registered among Palestinian detainees in an Israeli prison in the Naqab desert.

The new infections raised the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic to 171, according to the PPs.

It also noted that the Israeli prison authorities had moved all of the infected prisoners to section 8 in neighboring Ramon prison, but said it has not received any information about their health conditions.

PPS stressed that there was a real danger to the lives and health conditions of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities, given the lack of proper health measures.

It further called on the international human rights organizations, the World Health Organization and the United Nations to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to release all sick and elderly Palestinian prisoners.

For her part, the Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Keela, also warned about the danger of the virus outbreak among Palestinian detainees, highlighting major overcrowding in prisons.

Al-Keela stressed that “all Israeli prisons are vulnerable to becoming centers of the epidemic, which means that all Palestinian prisoners are highly vulnerable to infection with the COVID-19, and this puts their lives in danger, especially the sick prisoners, who amount to 700, especially chronic patients and cancer patients.”

She also called on the international community to pressure the occupation over the immediate release of the sick and elderly prisoners to form a neutral medical committee to supervise the results of the prisoners’ samples and their health conditions.



Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
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Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis's support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The Catholic church's highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that "Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate".

Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and "closeness to the poor... and to the neglected one", said the patriarch.

These positions became particularly evident in Francis's response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023, Pizzaballa said.

"He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of Gaza, he kept calling them many times -- for a certain period, also every day, every evening at 7 pm," said the patriarch.

He added that by doing so, the pope "became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he knew this".

Out of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" in the besieged territory.

"Work for justice... but without becoming part of the conflict," said Pizzaballa of the late pontiff's actions.

"For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy."

The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any official message from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even as "the local authorities... were not always happy" with the pope's positions or statements, they were "always very respectful", he said.

Pizzaballa said he will travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the morning.

As one of the 135 cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect a new pope.

Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September 2023, just before the Gaza war began.

His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace since then have attracted international attention.