Israel repressing, neglecting rights of Palestinian prisoners: Palestinian foreign ministry

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinian prisoners, including racial profiling as well as the policy of repression, abuse and deliberate medical negligence, saying it is putting in efforts to hold to account those responsible for such atrocities.

The ministry, in a statement released on Monday, said the Israeli regime headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears total responsibility for the death of Bassam al-Sayeh, 47, from the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, and growing threats to lives of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.

It added that Palestinian authorities are making efforts in order to push the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into the death of Sayeh as well as continued Israeli crimes against Palestinian people.

The Palestinian foreign ministry further noted that it will work with international and judicial institutions, including Human Rights Council in Geneva, its contractual mechanisms and special rapporteurs – especially the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in this regard.

PressTV-Ailing Palestinian political prisoner dies over negligence

The 47-year-old inmate lost his life in the Israeli Assaf Harofeh medical center.

Israel responsible for Palestinian prisoner death: PLO, Hamas 

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has also held Israel responsible for the death of Sayeh.

The Amman-based Palestinian National Council (PNC) -- the legislative body of the PLO -- called for an investigation into the Israeli medical negligence and crimes against Palestinian prisoners.

"This crime is added to the series of Israeli crimes against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, due to deliberate medical negligence," the PNC said in a statement on Monday.

The PNC also urged international legal and human rights organizations to investigate Israeli medical negligence against Palestinians prisoners.

A senior leader of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement also held Israel fully responsible for the Palestinian prisoner's death in Israeli prison.

"One day this occupier (Israel) will pay the price for not only its crimes, but also its illegal presence on the land of Palestine. This occupation will end," Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, told reporters on Sunday.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement that “Sayeh died in the Israeli hospital of Assaf Harofeh on Sunday evening after he was transferred from Israeli prison due to his medical condition.”

He was suffering from bone cancer, acute leukemia and heart problems.

Sayeh was arrested in 2015 as he was attending his wife’s trial session and was charged along with her with involvement in the killing of an Israeli officer in the West Bank.

Despite his deteriorating health condition, Israel's prison authorities had rejected numerous calls for his release.

The death of al-Sayyeh brings the number of Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails since 1967 to 221 prisoners, the Palestinian media say.

According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency Wafa, at least 700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails suffer from serious health conditions, of whom 160 prisoners are in need of urgent medical follow-up.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails.

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