Palestinian medical sources reported that former political prisoner, Zoheir Lubbada, 38 years old, died on Thursday at the Intensive Care Unit of the National Government Hospital in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, one week after he was released from an Israeli prison suffering numerous health complications due to medical negligence in prison clinics. Fuad al-Khoffash, Head of the Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies and Human Rights, reported that Lubbada was unconscious when he was released by Israel, and remained in a critical condition until he died on Thursday.
Ahmad al-Beetway, a researcher working for the International Solidarity Foundation, said that Israel “never releases a sick detainee before making sure that his health condition is very serious”.
“Israel makes sure that seriously ill detainees die shortly after their release”, al- Beetway stated, “This way, Israel avoids confrontation with the detainees, and tries to excuse itself from blame”.
Head of the National Hospital in Nablus, Dr. Husam al-Jawhary, stated Lubbada was is a coma when he was released last Friday, May 24, suffering from kidney failure, liver sclerosis, Hepatitis B, a lung tumor, and several other health issues. Lubbada was immediately admitted to the Intensive Care unit but succumbed to accumulating health complications.
It is worth mentioning that Lubbada was repeatedly abducted and imprisoned by Israel, spending more than 14 accumulated years behind bars, and was also exiled to Marj az-Zohour, in southern Lebanon in 1992, when Israel forced into exile dozens of Hamas political leaders.
