Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of 'deliberate medical negligence' after prisoner death

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday accused Israel of medical negligence after a Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody.

The Palestinian foreign ministry urged both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the death of 48-year-old Ahmed Badr Abdullah Abu Ali from Yatta, south of Hebron.

أحمد بدر عبدالله أبو علي، الأسير الشهيد، ٤٨ عامًا، ارتقى صباح اليوم ١٠/٢/٢٠٢٣م، في سجن سوروكا، نتيجة للإهمال الطبي المتعمد.

📍إنستغرام: https://t.co/l3mcWDfSIk#مش_أرقام pic.twitter.com/CQA2kFuSko

— مش أرقام (@Mesh_arkam) February 10, 2023

Abu Ali died "as a result of a policy of deliberate medical negligence by the (Israeli) occupation authorities against our sick prisoners", Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said in a statement.

He said such treatment deprives Palestinian prisoners of the right of treatment outlined in international norms and conventions.

Israel has dismissed the claims of neglect.

"These are baseless accusations which are part of a false propaganda campaign from the Palestinian Authority against Israel," a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry told AFP.

Israel's prison service confirmed on Friday that an unnamed detainee was found on Thursday "without a pulse, attempts to revive him failed and he was declared dead".

It added he was a member of the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli media said Abu Ali was arrested for recruiting a Palestinian who allegedly carried out a stabbing attack that injured an Israeli civilian in the city of Beersheba in 2012.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) advocacy group said Abu Ali's health had seriously deteriorated while he was imprisoned.

It added he had been jailed in 2012 and had two years remaining of his sentence.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the besieged Gaza Strip, denounced Abu Ali's death as "a flagrant violation of all international humanitarian rules".

More than 4,600 Palestinian prisoners are jailed in Israeli prisons, according to PPC statistics. Approximately 500 of them are held in administrative detention, without charge or trial.

Despite international calls to end its practice of administrative detention, which typically lasts for terms between three and six months, Israel often extends them indefinitely.

Amnesty International said in a February report that Israel is engaging in a system of apartheid against Palestinians, in which administrative detentions are frequently used as a form of punishment.

(Agencies, The New Arab)