Seriously injured Palestinian prisoners Raed al-Salhi and Abdel-Aziz Arafa remained imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. Both Salhi and Arafa are Palestinian refugee youth from Dheisheh refugee camp; they were attacked by Israeli occupation forces invading the camp on 9 August and severely injured by the occupation troops, who fired live bullets on them.
Raed al-Salhi remains dependent on a ventilator for respiration in Hadassah Hospital, while Arafa was brought to the Ofer military court on 29 August on a hospital bed.
The military court ordered the detention of Arafa, who was shot in the leg by live Israeli bullets during the invasion of their refugee camp, extended until 9 October. Following the hearing, Arafa was transferred to the Ramle prison clinic. His lawyer, Karim Ajwa of the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, said that the Ramle clinic lacks the minimum standards of life necessary to treat prisoners effectively, worsening their conditions. Arafa has had an metal bar implanted in his leg and will need to have future surgery to remove the bars and further reconstruct his leg.
Salhi is suffering from damage to his kidneys as well as to his liver and thighs, and is suffering from pneumonia as well, according to Ajwa. As Salhi struggles to survive, his family members have so far been denied permits to visit him on the pretext that his interrogation was continuing – even as al-Salhi was sedated and in a coma. He is being held under strict security guards at the hospital despite his severe health situation in intensive care.
“All of the family’s attempts to obtain a permit to visit have failed. The occupation authorities are preventing all members of his family from visiting him to check on his health. The last attempt was several weeks ago by his mother, who suffers from several diseases herself and cannot sleep due to her worry,” said Khaled al-Salhi, Raed’s brother, to Quds News.
