Ramallah - Saba:
Palestinian prisoners' institutions (Addameer Prisoner Support, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, and the Commission of Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs) issued an urgent appeal to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, calling for immediate international intervention in light of the escalating health crisis among prisoners in Israeli prisons, coupled with the ongoing systematic crimes and policies aimed at killing more of them.
In their statement issued on Wednesday, the Palestinian institutions highlighted the widespread outbreak of scabies and amoebic infection, in addition to serious skin diseases, chronic diarrhea, and persistent vomiting.
This comes amid systematic medical neglect by the Israeli prison system, which falls within the framework of medical crimes that have escalated at an unprecedented rate since the start of the genocide.
They emphasized that every prisoner visited by legal teams suffers from at least one health problem, reflecting the scale of the health catastrophe.
It noted the deaths of at least 65 Palestinian prisoners, including a child who died as a result of a complex crime involving illness and starvation. It also noted widespread disease in various prisons, particularly in the Negev, Megiddo, Gilboa, and Ofer prisons.
It indicated that children detained in Ofer prison were showing symptoms of undiagnosed and untreated skin diseases, amid a systematic deprivation of basic hygiene supplies and medical care.
The World Health Organization called for immediate pressure on the Israeli authorities to comply with international health standards and the Geneva Conventions, and to provide essential medicines and urgent medical care, including referral to external hospitals for critical cases.
It also called for the establishment of an independent international medical oversight body within Israeli prisons, and for the Israeli authorities to be held accountable for their ongoing violations and crimes against Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian prisoners' organizations emphasized that "the deliberate denial of healthcare and hygiene supplies constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," calling on the international community, especially the World Health Organization, to take immediate action to save the lives of thousands of prisoners in Israeli prisons.
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