ISRAELI army troops on Sunday shot dead an unidentified Palestinian youth at Huwwara checkpoint, to the south of Nablus, after he allegedly attempted to stab some soldiers with a knife, according to medical sources.
The killing of the unidentified youth brings up the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of unrest in the occupied Palestinian Territory in early October 2015 to 159. Over 16,000 others have been injured.
Israeli army forces on Sunday detained at least five Palestinians during predawn raids into the West Bank districts of Bethlehem and Hebron, according to local and security sources.
In Hebron district army forces broke into the town of Beit Awwa, where they detained a local Palestinian after raiding his home. He was identified as Ra’fat Masalmeh. Meanwhile, Israeli troops broke into Abu Sneineh neighbourhood in Hebron, where they raided and searched many homes and detained two local Palestinians.
The two were identified as Mohammad Abu Rmouz, 20, and Ra’fat Abu Turki, 22.
During the late night offensive, soldiers assaulted and beat up two Palestinians, causing them serious injuries. The two were later transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
In the meantime, Israeli soldiers stormed the town of Sa’ir, east of Hebron, searched many homes in the town and detained an injured Palestinian teenager. He was identified as Mohammad Froukh, 18.
In Bethlehem district, Israeli troops broke through Dehesheh refugee camp and detained a Palestinian woman after raiding and searching her house. She was identified as Hanadi Mughrabi, 37.
The Israeli Army also notified three local Palestinians to appear for interrogation. The Israeli incursion into the camp provoked clashes with local youths, during which soldiers used rubber-coated steel rounds, teargas canisters and stun grenades to disperse them, causing several locals to suffocate due to tear gas inhalation. They were all treated at the scene.
Clashes also erupted between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths outside the Manger Square in Bethlehem, after Israeli troops stormed the area. Meanwhile a sick Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails has been denied urgent and much needed surgeries by the Israeli prison authorities, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
The PPS said prisoner Mohammad Abrash has been in dire need of multiple surgeries; he has been suffering from a partial hearing and visual impairment, necessitating an urgent cornea transplant, PPS said.
Abrash also suffers from continuing and unusual pus oozing out of his foot, which was amputated due to an injury he previously sustained at the hands of Israeli soldiers prior to his detention.
The PPS maintained that the health status of Abrash has seen a dramatic deterioration due to the prison service’s continued medical negligence, which further aggravated his already poor health condition. Abrash has been detained since 2003 and is sentenced to three lifetimes, followed by 35 years in jail.
Addameer, a prisoner support and human rights group, has accused Israeli Prison Service (IPS) of using medical negligence as a deliberate policy against Palestinian prisoners. According to the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, ‘the medical officer shall have the care of the physical and mental health of the prisoners and should daily see all sick prisoners, all who complain of illness, and any prisoner to whom his attention is specially directed’.
The Israeli Prison Service has been refusing to re-implant an artificial cardiac pacemaker for a Palestinian detainee suffering from heart diseases, Saturday revealed the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee. The committee revealed that Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has been refusing to re-implant an artificial pacemaker for Riyadh Dakhlallah al-Amur, 45, who is sentenced to 11 life sentences in the Israeli prison of Eshel.
As a result of the IPS’s refusal to change his dysfunctional pacemaker, al-Amur has been intermittently slipping into a comma and feeling weak and tired. Highlighting his difficult case, the committee added that al-Amur has been suffering from several health problems, including a weak cardiac muscle, and that after being shot with several bullets by Israeli forces in the back, he has had part of his intestines and liver excised and the duodenum valve replaced.
The committee added that al-Amur had underwent an open heart surgery two years ago and that he would not have adequate heart rate unless he has a new artificial pacemaker transplanted for him. The committee called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately intervene and compel IPS to allow al-Amur to have a new artificial pacemaker.
To be noted, al-Amur underwent an open-heart-surgery almost two years ago.
Separately, the committee submitted a file on Israeli violations against Palestinian detainees to the higher national committee in charge of following-up with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
As part of this file, the committee said that in 2015, 16 war crimes and seven crimes against humanity were committed against Palestinian detainees by the Israeli government, noting that the file would be submitted to ICC to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
There are some 1,500 sick prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom 80 prisoners are suffering from serious health problems and do not receive the necessary treatment. They suffer from malignant diseases, paralysis, and disabilities, in addition to cases of mental illness and neurological disorder.
According to an Israeli rights group B’Tselem annual report issued in 2013, ‘53 prisoners died inside Israeli prisons due to medical negligence. In addition, several cases were documented in which prisoners died after their release, with medical reports indicating that their deaths resulted from medical negligence’.
One Palestinian prisoner has been imprisoned in Israeli jails for a total of 34 years, now, a Palestinian prisoner rights advocate reported. According to the Palestine Prisoners Centre for Studies, Maher Younis, a native of Arara town, in 1948 Occupied Palestine, has now completed his 34th year in an Israeli jail.
Spokesperson for the Palestine Prisoners Centre, Reyad al-Ashqar, said Younis was arrested on January 18, 1983, a couple of weeks after his cousin, Kareem (the longest serving Palestinian detainee), was kidnapped. Younis was sentenced to life on allegations of killing an Israeli occupation soldier.
Younis was first sentenced to death by hanging. In 2012, the occupation authorities reduced his sentence to 40 years. The detainee has been prevented from visits by his second-degree relatives, al-Ashqar added. Some eight years ago, the Israeli occupation authorities turned down an appeal by prisoner Younis to bid his cancer-stricken father last farewell while he was on his deathbed.
But his dream never became true and his father died shortly after, causing Younis a remarkable psychological downturn. On 25 February 2013, he began an open-ended hunger strike in the Gilboa lock-up in protest at being excluded, among a number of other inmates, from prisoner swap deals. Younis, now 57 years old, is the second longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails.
