The medical negligence of detainees is one of the weapons used by the Israeli occupation against Palestinians, and indeed is one of the main causes of death amongst prisoners over the last years.
At dawn today, Friday 10 February, the Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Badr Abdullah Abu Ali, 48-years-old, from the city of Yatta in the Hebron Governorate, died in Soroka University Medical Center, as a result of medical negligence.
Abu Ali suffered from several illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes, which were both exacerbated by the Israeli prison authorities refusing to provide him with proper, timely medical care.
Abu Ali had been detained since 2012 after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He is the father of nine children, and the only brother of seven sisters.
Both his parents died whilst he was imprisoned.
He was denied the chance of a final meeting with them.
Israeli prison authorities deliberately fail to provide sufficient medical staff and equipment to treat Palestinian detainees, worsening their health.
Prison authorities have been known to provide only over-the-counter medication for conditions as serious as pneumonia.
Thereby the authorities violate the articles of the Geneva Convention governing the medical treatment of prisoners or war.
With the death of Ahmed Abu Ali, the number of Palestinian prisoners to have died in Israeli custody since 1967 has risen to 235, of whom at least 75 died due to medical negligence.
The number of Palestinian prisoners with serious medical conditions currently held in occupation prisons is approximately 600, 24 of whom suffer from some form of cancer.
