10/10/2024
Sick Prisoners
The number of sick prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons has reached approximately 600. Among the notable cases currently held in the Ramla Clinic Prison are Khaled Shawish, Mansour Muqada, Mu’tasim Raddad, Nahi Athaqra, and Iyad Haribat. Most of them have been detained in the Ramla Clinic Prison since their arrest and have witnessed the deaths of several of their fellow prisoners over the years.
Out of these cases, 200 prisoners have been diagnosed with chronic illnesses, including 24 suffering from varying degrees of cancer and tumors. The most critical case was that of prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, who suffered from advanced lung cancer. He was martyred on December 20, 2022, and his body was withheld in Israeli morgues, with authorities refusing to hand it over to his family.
Nasser Abu Hamid was martyred after spending 30 years in detention, while his four brothers, all serving life sentences, remain in prison.
Israeli occupation forces first arrested Nasser Abu Hamid (50 years old) as a minor. Despite multiple arrests, the oppressive measures of the prison system never broke his will or weakened his convictions about the justice of his cause and the rights of his people. Each time he was released, he emerged stronger and more determined to fight for his homeland and his people’s rights. He remained loyal to the land and the cause, becoming a fierce fighter against the occupiers and settlers.
During the Second Intifada in 2000, Nasser helped found the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the Fatah movement. As a leader in the West Bank, he led many operations against the occupation and its forces. Israeli authorities made several attempts to assassinate him before finally arresting him on April 22, 2002, alongside his brother Nasser in the Qalandia refugee camp. Following a harsh interrogation and physical and psychological torture, the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem sentenced him on December 24, 2002, to seven life sentences plus 50 additional years. He later became one of the leaders of the prisoners' movement, representing them in numerous confrontations with Israeli prison authorities.
Over the years, Nasser spent more than 30 years in Israeli prisons, exceeding the time he spent outside. His four brothers, all sentenced to life imprisonment for resisting the occupation, remain behind bars:
In addition, their brother Abdul Muneim Abu Hamid, a member of Al-Qassam Brigades, was martyred after being assassinated by Israeli special forces on May 31, 1994.
In August 2021, Nasser’s health severely declined, and he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. This malignant disease developed during his prolonged detention due to harsh conditions, poor treatment, lack of healthcare services, and absence of routine medical check-ups. Following demands from rights organizations and protests by prisoners, he underwent surgery in October 2021 to remove the tumor and 10 cm around it. However, prison authorities, as usual, returned him to detention before he could recover, depriving him of necessary post-operative care.
This neglect caused his health to deteriorate further, particularly after receiving the second dose of chemotherapy. Eventually, the Israeli Asqalan Prison authorities transferred him again to Barzilai Hospital, where he was admitted to intensive care on life support due to severe lung inflammation and bacterial infection. This led to respiratory and immune system failure, resulting in his martyrdom on December 20, 2022.
The case of Nasser Abu Hamid highlights the dire health conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. These conditions include systematic medical neglect, poor facilities, lack of timely treatment, and inhumane practices like withholding bodies after death. Nasser’s death, along with those of hundreds of other prisoners during or shortly after detention, serves as a stark reminder of the occupation’s policy of slow killing through medical neglect and oppressive detention practices.