A report released by the Palestinian Prisoners Society Wednesday found that 226 prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons have died in detention since 1967. This is in addition to hundreds more prisoners who died shortly after their release, due to diseases and injuries they acquired during the years of their detention.
The Prisoners Society issued the report on the eve of Palestinian Martyr’s Day. Among those who died in detention, 75 were killed as a result of premeditated murder, 7 died after they were shot, and 71 died as a result of the medical negligence and slow killing policy implemented by the occupation prison administration.
In addition, 73 prisoners died of torture by Israeli prison authorities – a practice used over the past decades, which have escalated again since the end of 2019.
The statement indicated that during the past ten years, 29 prisoners died in the occupation prisons, and the policy of medical negligence was a central reason for their killing.
In 2020, four prisoners died, namely Nour al-Din al-Barghouti, Saadi al-Gharabli, Daoud al-Khatib and Kamal Abu Waar.
Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of 28 deceased prisoners, the oldest of whom is the body of Anis Dawla, which has been held since 1980, in addition to Aziz Uweissat, who died in 2018, Faris Baroud, Nasar Taqatqa, and Bassam al-Sayeh, who died in 2019, and three who died in 2020: Saadi al-Gharabli, Daoud al-Khatib, and Kamal Abu Waar.
The report stated that the prisoner, Dawood Al-Khatib, died on September 2, in “Ofer” prison, after 18 years of detention, and several months before his freedom was due. On November 10, after 17 years of imprisonment, he was diagnosed with cancer in the throat, and he was infected with the Corona virus in the occupation hospital.
Israeli authorities continue to detain his body, which they refuse to release to his family for burial.
