“Medical Negligence” is frequently used when describing the situation of Palestinian detainees in the Israeli occupation jails. However, no one could imagine how sore it is to live under such miserable circumstances unless s/he experiences the same situation.

Sick Palestinian detainees are dying a slow, painful death in the Israeli occupation jails. This is the fact the Israeli occupation ignores as its jails’ administration is a leading cause of it. The colonial jails’ administration’s disregard for their lives and the failure to provide the necessary medical care for them opens the door to a dramatic rise in the number of Palestinian detainees who have passed away during their detainment in Israeli occupation jails, which reached (227).

Gross Injustice

It begins with the detainee getting sick, mostly due to the jails’ widespread overcrowding, poor hygienic conditions which result in a high rate of diseases among the detainees.

Medical malpractice has become a systematic policy of the Israeli occupation used against Palestinian detainees that should force international organizations, including the ICRC and WHO, to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities into account for their crimes.

Asra (detainees) Media Office reported that the jail’s doctor is often a general practitioner and, in some cases, a nurse who provides only sedatives to the sick detainees. And there are no specialized doctors in there, while the female detainees suffer from the absence of a gynecologist as there is only a general practitioner.

The report points out that there are also no doctors on duty at night to treat emergency cases, and sick detainees are transported to hospitals for treatment, cuffed hand and foot.

Hundreds of sick Palestinian detainees are subjected to difficult conditions that lack the minimum standards of living and sound health, in addition to the harsh interrogation conditions they are exposed to once detained and the deliberate medical negligence. This leads to a deterioration in their health conditions and serious diseases.

Worrying Numbers!

More than 700 detainees with different types of diseases, about 120 of them suffer from serious illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, and hemiplegia.

In the report, the Office said that the Ramleh jail clinic, to which sick detainees are transferred when their health conditions worsen, lacks all the essential health services, the same as jails. There have been 16 sick detainees in this clinic for years, and their health conditions have not yet improved, and they are likely to pass away if no immediate action is taken. 

The Israeli occupation authorities violate all international conventions related to medical and health care for sick detainees, especially Article 92 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which reads: “Qualified, licensed health care professionals shall classify each detainee on the basis of medical and mental health needs. Detainees shall be referred for evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and stabilization as medically indicated.”

The office called on the international community and signatories of the Geneva Conventions to assume their responsibilities towards protecting Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, and to break their silence and condemn the Israeli occupation regarding the clear crimes the sick detainees are subjected to, aiming to kill them by not providing them with appropriate treatment, and disregarding their lives.