Ref: 14/2023

Date: 10 February 2023

Time: 19:30

Palestinian Detainee in the Israeli prisons, Ahmed Abu ‘Ali, from Yatta in Hebron, Died at “Soroka” Hospital in Beersheba.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) calls for a prompt and impartial investigation into Abu ‘Ali’s death circumstances and is strongly concerned that he might be a new victim of the medical negligence policy in the Israeli prisons.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, on Friday, 10 February 2023, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the death of Ahmed Abu ‘Ali (48), a detainee in Negev Prison, due to the deterioration of his health condition, and accordingly being referred to Soroka Hospital, where he underwent cardiac catheterization last Tuesday.

PCHR is in contact with the Abu Kabir Forensic Medicine Institute to identify Abu ‘Ali’s death circumstances.

It should be noted that the health condition of detainee Abu ‘Ali, who was arrested on 26 November 2012 and sentenced to 12 years in prison, recently deteriorated, causing him heart problems in addition to other health issues, including chronic diabetes, hypertension, joint pains, obesity, and motor difficulties.

Abu Ali’s death sheds the light on the general deterioration of Palestinian detainees’ conditions in the Israeli prisons as there are more than 4700 Palestinians, including 150 children and 29 women, detained in inhuman and cruel conditions that lack the standard minimum rules of the treatment of prisoners and detainees in detention.  Among the detainees, there are 600 ill detainees; some of them suffer chronic and serious diseases.

According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, since 1967, 235 Palestinians detained on security grounds have died in the Israeli prisons, including dozens who died due to medical negligence policy.

PCHR hereby holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the death of Palestinian detainee Abu ‘Ali and for the lives of hundreds of ill detainees, who might face the same fate if the policy of deliberate medical negligence continued, especially under the unhealthy imprisonment conditions where prisoners are denied adequate healthcare. Similarly, PCHR:

1. Calls for a prompt and impartial investigation into the death circumstances.
2. Calls upon the International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC) to intensify and ensure efficacy of their follow-up of the conditions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and their imprisonment conditions.
3. Calls upon the international community to compel Israel to respect the rules of the international law and international humanitarian law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
4. Urge the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and its commission of inquiry to investigate promptly the death of Abu ‘Ali and visit the Israeli prisons to follow up the conditions of the sick Palestinian detainees, who might face the same fate as Abu ‘Ali.