The suffering of the Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli occupation prisons continues dramatically, as two prisoners, Samih Suleiman Muhammad Elewi, 61, from Nablus, and Anwar Shaaban Muhammad Aslim, 44, from Gaza were killed inside Israeli prisons.
Israeli prisons are notorious and famous for human rights violations, especially medical negligence and ill-treatment of prisoners.
On Friday, Palestinian human rights organisations announced the death of prisoner Samih Elewi who died on November 6, 2024, days after being transferred from the Ramla prison clinic to Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where his health conditions severely deteriorated.
Despite his critical condition, the occupation prison administration did not announce his death until recently.
Elewi, who has been in administrative detention since October 2023, was suffering from a benign intestinal tumour before his arrest, and had undergone several surgeries previously, but his health condition deteriorated as a result of deliberate medical negligence and the lack of treatment during his detention. He lost more than 40 kg of weight since his arrest as a result, and lost his ability to eat normally.
The prisoner Anwar Aslim died on November 14, 2024, while being transferred from the Negev Prison to Soroka Hospital after a sudden deterioration in his health.
Aslim was arrested in December 2023, and did not suffer from any health problems before his arrest, according to his family’s statement.
The deaths of the two prisoners reflect the tragic reality of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s prisons, as reports indicate the spread of diseases and poor health care. For example, prisoners in the Negev Prison suffer from an outbreak of scabies among hundreds of them, which represents a blatant example of medical negligence used as a means of suppression and torture against prisoners.
The number of deaths among Palestinian prisoners has risen to 280 since 1967, including 43 prisoners who died since last October 2023 alone.
The occupation also continues its policy of administrative detention, holding thousands of prisoners in its prisons without charge or trial, including children and women.
There are more than 10,200 prisoners in the occupation prisons, including 96 female prisoners, 270 children, and 3,443 administrative detainees.
Urgent action is needed to be taken immediately by international institutions to stop the serious violations to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected, which fall within the category of war crimes, and to reject the immunity granted by major countries to the Israeli occupation, which encourages it to continue committing more violations.