Abu Hmeid taking his last breaths, expected to die: Prisoners Club

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The Palestinian Prisoners Club warned on Monday that the cancer-stricken prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid is taking his last breaths and his death is expected at any moment.

Citing Abu Hmeid's family, the Information Office said the prisoner entered a coma, after which he was transferred from the Ramleh prison clinic to the "Asaf Harofeh" hospital.

The Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in Gaza appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to organize an urgent visit to Abu Hmeid's family after the prisoner entered a coma.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Waed Prisoners Association held the occupation "responsible for all the repercussions having refused to transfer cancer-stricken prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid to the hospital although his condition is critical and rapidly deteriorating."

"The occupation's insistence on keeping prisoner Nasser Abu Hemid in the notorious so-called Ramle prison clinic, means that the occupation is proceeding with the decision of executing and killing Nasser Abu Hmeid in this brutal and heinous way," Waed said.

The association considered that prisoner Abu Hmeid's situation reaching this stage was not sufficient enough for international institutions, particularly the World Health Organization, to actually take human rights and humanitarian action.

Waed criticized "the complete absence of the WHO from this bloody scene against a sick prisoner, who is being liquidated in a sadistic and barbaric manner without the slightest concern."

It is noteworthy that Abu Hmeid is one of 24 cases suffering from cancer and tumors of varying degrees. However, he is considered one of the most difficult cases held in the Israeli occupation prisons.

In early October, an Israeli occupation court refused the request for the early release of the prisoner, despite his critical health condition, just like other previous release requests the Israeli occupation turned down.

The cancer-stricken prisoner has been in Israeli occupation prisons since 2002 and is serving seven life sentences and an additional 50 years. He is one of five siblings serving life sentences in Israeli occupation prisons. The family's house has been demolished several times by the Israeli occupation forces, and their mother has been denied visitation for several years.

According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, 600 Palestinian prisoners suffer from illness in Israeli occupation prisons.

The Commission pointed to the tragic conditions, brutal treatment, cruel torture, and criminality practiced by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian prisoners.

It added that a number of these prisoners suffer from serious diseases, such as cancer, and suffer from critical health conditions in light of deliberate medical negligence practiced by the Israeli occupation authorities.

The policy of neglect

In violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and others, the Israeli occupation pursues a policy of medical neglect against Palestinian prisoners who are continuously subjected to torment and maltreatment.

Behind the walls of the Israeli prisons, Palestinians are always exposed to aggression and brutality under Israeli occupation. As a result of neglect and abuse, some freed prisoners with forsaken medical cases are reported dead shortly after their release, while others are reported dead inside the prison.

The methods to weaken both the will and the body are a tragic duality practiced amid an Israeli political and judicial system that legitimizes torture and psychological pressure against Palestinian prisoners.

Read more: The Policy of Neglect; Behind the Walls of the Occupation Prisons