A Palestinian detainee suffering from cancer died, on Thursday, in Israeli prison, and is the eleventh detainee to die since the beginning of the Israeli aggression against Gaza, on October 7, 2023.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) announced, on Thursday, the death of the detainee, Assef Refa’ey, 22, who suffered from cancer.
Refe’ey, a resident of the village of Kafr Ain, northwest of Ramallah in the central West Bank, had been detained in occupation prison since September 24, 2022.
Prior to his abduction, the Israeli authorities denied Refe’ey a permit to enter occupied Jerusalem for necessary cancer treatment, and during his detention, the Israeli prison authorities denied the young man medical treatment.
Israel’s denial of access to appropriate medical care resulted in the deterioration in his health condition and his ultimate death.
Shortly before his death, he was transferred from the Ramla Prison Clinic to the Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Israel.
The statement from the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the PPS quoted medical reports that said the cancer had spread throughout the young man’s body due to medical negligence on the part of the Israeli prison authorities.
The statement added that the “Israeli Prison Service” deliberately carries out a policy of medical neglect against sick detainees.
The statement added that the young man was a former prisoner that had been imprisoned three times prior to his last detention, and had also sustained several gunshot wounds, inflicted on him by Israeli forces.
The two groups called on human rights and humanitarian institutions to intervene on behalf of sick Palestinian detainees, at least 24 of whom suffer from cancer, and hundreds more who are afflicted with chronic diseases and disabilities as a result of being shot by Israeli forces.
Refe’ey is the eleventh Palestinian detainee to die in Israeli prison since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip, and the 248th detainee to die since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza.
1. October 23, 2023 – Omar Hamza Hassan Daraghmeh, 58
2. October 24, 2023 – Arafat Yasser Hamdan, 25
3. November 6, 2023 – Majed Ahmed Zaqoul, 32
4. Date Unknown – unidentified detainee from the Gaza Strip
5. November 13, 2023 – Abdul-Rahman Ahmad Mohammad Mer’ey, 33
6. November 18, 2023 – Thaer Samih Abu Assab, 38
7. January 1, 2024 – Abdul Rahman Bassem Al-Bahsh, 23
8. February 8, 2024 – Mohammad Ahmad Rateb Sabbar, 21
9. February 21, 2024 – Khaled Shaweewsh, 53
10. Feb. 20, 2024 – Izz al-Din Ziad Abd Al-Banna, 40
