West Bank- Two months have passed since the martyrdom of the prisoner Samih Aliwi, and his family did not know any news about him, how he was martyred, and where his body is being kept until now. They did not receive any response from the Israeli occupation authorities to answer any of these inquiries, but rather they provided them with misleading information, while he was martyred on the sixth of November. Last November, the news reached them after 9 days.
In addition to the Gaza Strip, Israel is pursuing a policy of “extermination” against the Palestinians also in the West Bank and against the prisoners inside its prisons, of whom 54 prisoners have been martyred so far, while the fate of dozens remains unknown, which confirms – according to institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs – that what is happening against them is “facet”. Another war of extermination, aiming for more executions and liquidations.”
Aliwi’s family confirms that what their son Samih (61 years old) was subjected to was a “systematic execution.” He was arrested on October 21, 2023, in good health and walking on his feet. Medical negligence, failure to provide him with the necessary treatment, and torture led to his martyrdom.
Willful negligence
Moatasem, son of the martyr Samih, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “When my father was arrested, he was undergoing treatment as a result of a surgery performed on his stomach at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. We handed the occupation soldiers the medical reports, and told them that he would have a second operation after two months.” He added that they were getting their information through prisoners liberated from Megiddo Prison, where his father was serving his first period of detention before being transferred to Negev Prison.
The information confirmed that a serious deterioration occurred in his health condition due to medical neglect and the beatings to which he was constantly subjected, especially when he said the call to prayer and prayer, and that his weight decreased from 90 kilograms to less than half, and the occupation continued to refuse to treat him until the end of last October, when he was transferred to a prison clinic. Ramle, known for its poor medical services, was then transferred to the Israeli Assaf Harofeh Hospital where his death was announced.
Throughout the period of his illness – the family confirms – he only received painkillers after great pressure from human rights and humanitarian institutions, and they did not receive any medical report on the circumstances of his martyrdom, nor even the place where his body was kept.
According to Moatasem, after completing one of the investigation sessions, last September, his father called his mother and aunt, and he was unable to tell his wife about his health problems due to the presence of the Israeli prison officer next to him, so they thought he was in a better condition, and his lawyers were also prevented from visiting him or even appealing his sentence, and “ They claim he is in good health.”
Although they have no idea why their son was martyred, Aliwi’s family insists that he was “directly executed with certain medications, medical negligence, or torture.” Moatasem says, “The occupation claims whatever it wants. It alone has the information, especially since it prevents human rights and humanitarian institutions from Visiting prisoners, we are being subjected to a policy of collective punishment by killing and detaining my father’s body.”
The martyr prisoner Samih was imprisoned many times. The occupation arrested him for more than 10 years, where he spent between sentences and administrative detention. They closed his gold shop and confiscated his property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Systematic policy
Yesterday, Thursday, the martyrdom of freed prisoner Ismail Taqatqa (40 years old) from the city of Bethlehem was announced, “after being exposed to a systematic medical crime in the occupation prisons,” which led – according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club – to his martyrdom in Jordan 5 months after his release. It was discovered that he had leukemia.
The two institutions said – in a statement, a copy of which was received by Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that “thousands of prisoners have been subjected and are being subjected to systematic torture, in an unprecedented way since the start of the war of extermination on Gaza, and that medical crimes and denial of treatment constituted the most prominent tool for carrying out systematic executions against dozens of prisoners.” Since the start of the war.”
This was also confirmed by Amani Sarhaneh, head of the media unit at the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, when she said that the conditions of the prisoners, whose number exceeded 10,400, are tragic and that their fate depends on two things:
- the first: The continuation of systematic crimes of torture in all its forms, including starvation, beatings, medical crimes, and sexual and physical assaults.
- the second: It is time, as the prisoner who has endured the situation since the beginning of the war has become difficult for him today, after 15 months, to bear it. This is an indication of the rise in the number of martyrs among the ranks of the prisoners, “and it is certain that we will witness more martyrs among them,” she tells Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
International deficit
According to the official, Sarhanna, “Thousands of prisoners have become physically and psychologically ill. Never in the history of the prisoner movement has it lost 54 martyrs in 15 months, and their identities are known. We have data on dozens of Gaza prisoners who were martyred after the war, and the occupation is practicing the crime of enforced disappearance against them.”
She added, “The amount of data mentioned by prisoner institutions – including medical crimes, torture and starvation – is no longer sufficient to describe the situation in prisons, and the state of systematic helplessness practiced by the international system and the human rights system, all of which encourage the occupation to practice more torture and medical crimes in all their forms.”
The discourse used to describe the occupation’s crimes against prisoners is no longer sufficient, according to the same speaker, and “there is a need for another discourse in terms of what is happening and what is being revealed of instantaneous genocide in Gaza and crimes of torture and sexual assaults against prisoners as well.”
In response to a question as to whether every prisoner is actually at risk of losing his life, Sarhanna confirmed this, and said that the fate of all prisoners is at stake. She accused the occupation of deliberately spreading the skin disease “Scabies” among the prisoners, and that most of those who were infected with it came out suffering from severe blood and liver infections. And others.
For his part, Hussein Shujaia, coordinator of the national campaign to recover the bodies detained by the occupation, revealed that 643 martyrs are detained and documented in the occupation’s cemeteries and morgues, including 63 martyrs from the prisoner movement.