The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society released new statistics on the number of Palestinian political prisoners as of October 1, 2014:
- There are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 17 Palestinian women prisoners.
- Nearly 250 Palestinian children are being held in three prisons: Megiddo, Ofer and Hasharon.
- There are approximately 500 administrative detainees held without charge or trial; over 350 have been sentenced to administrative detention since June 2014.
- There are 32 members of Palestinian Legislative Council held in occupation prisons.
- Over 60 former prisoners released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange are currently imprisoned in a wave of mass arrests since mid-June.
- Over 85,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces since September 28, 2000.
- There are 1500 Palestinian prisoners who are sick and need medical care, including 25 with cancer, 65 with serious injuries and degenerative conditions, 20 in Ramle prison clinic with difficult conditions, and 18 with neurological and psychological symptoms.
Several prisoners are in very serious medical conditions and face extreme danger, including Yousry al-Masri, Mansour Mowqada, Khaled Shawish, Moatassem Raddad, Nahed al-Aqra, Salah al-Titi, Alaa al-Hams, and Riad Amour.
The Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs said that the situation of prisoners’ health requires urgent intervention at an international level, saying “the continued detention of a number of sick prisoners can be regarded as their execution and deliberate murder.”
The ministry emphasized eight key points around the medical neglect and abuse faced by Palestinian prisoners:
1) delays in surgical procedures and other necessary treatment, worsening prisoners’ conditions.
2) lack of access to specialists for prisoners’ conditions in prison clinics
3) lack of hospital facilities, as Ramle prison clinic is worse than non-medical prisons in terms of conditions of life
4) imposing the cost of treatment on prisoners as a personal expense
5) transfer of sick prisoners to the Ramle clinic in the “Bosta” transport, which is physically and mentally inhumane, rather than by ambulance, over long distances
6) sick prisoners and detainees suffering from unhygienic conditions in Ashkelon, Negev and Eshel prisons
7) denial of access to regular or periodic tests to monitor prisoners’ conditions
8) sick prisoners subjected alongside other prisoners to violent raids by prison guards, ransacking belongings and forcing them to stand for long periods of time
Press TV reported (with video) on the situation faced by Palestinian prisoners today
