Palestinian detainee Islam Jarrar's health rapidly deteriorating
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Palestinian detainee Islam Jarrar suffers from starvation, medical neglect, and isolation in an Israeli prison amid escalating abuse of detainees this winter.
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Palestinian Detainee Islam Jarrar in an undated photo, Jenin, occupied West Bank (Palestinian Prisoner's Society)
A Palestinian prisoners' rights organization has reported that the health of a Palestinian detainee, Islam Jarrar, who has been held in an Israeli prison since 2002, has significantly worsened amid accounts of extensive torture and mistreatment faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention facilities.
The Asra Media Office (AMO) stated on Monday that 52-year-old Islam Saleh Jarrar, a resident of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, is being deliberately starved at Ganot Prison, leaving him severely emaciated and subjected to medical neglect.
According to the rights group, Jarrar, who was sentenced to nine life terms plus an additional seven years, is allowed to access the prison yard only once every two weeks for a single hour.
He is also forced to have his head completely shaved and denied normal hair trimming, measures the AMO described as part of a broader system of “collective humiliation” routinely imposed on Palestinian detainees by prison authorities.
The organization called on the international community to take urgent action to safeguard the lives of Palestinian detainees and to end what it described as the “slow-death policy” being carried out by Israeli authorities in their prisons.
Winter season puts detainees at risk
In a related development, the Palestine Center for Prisoners’ Studies warned of the “dangerous consequences of the winter season for Palestinian detainees.”
The center highlighted that detainees lack adequate winter clothing, blankets, hot water, and heating after two years of restrictions and isolation, putting their lives at serious risk.
It reported that Israeli authorities have imposed a state of emergency across all prisons since the start of the genocidal campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, completely isolating detainees from the outside world.
Family visits, legal access, and Red Cross inspections have all been prohibited. Additionally, since that time, the entry of clothing and blankets into prisons has been blocked, whether sent by families or humanitarian organizations.
