GAZA (PIC)– Palestinian inmates held in Israeli prisons announced on Sunday a three-day hunger strike following the death of their fellow inmate at an Israeli jail earlier in the morning.
The Palestinian detainees staged the strike after news emerged of the death of 40-year-old Yasser Dhiab Hamdouna who died of a stroke after a failure by Israeli prison officials to provide him with necessary medical care.
The 40-year-old Hamdouna a resident of the occupied northern West Bank city of Jenein suffered a stroke on Sunday morning and was pronounced dead upon arrival at an Israeli medical center.
Hamdouna serving life imprisonment in Ramon jail had been suffering from recurrent shortness of breath heart problems as well as agonizing pains in his left ear.
The sources said Hamdouna’s condition further deteriorated in the wake of Israeli prison authorities’ delay in providing treatment for him.
Head of the prisoners’ media office Abdul Rahman Shedid said the Israeli prison service had dragged its feet vis-à-vis al-Hamdouna’s cries for help and kept him for over 20 minutes in the prison clinic where he was pronounced dead following a stroke.
According to Shadid the prisoners returned their meals in protest at Israel’s preplanned medical neglect.
Prisoners in the Ramon Nafha and Holikdar also decided to close prison sections.
Shadid held the IPS responsible for al-Hamdouna’s death urging all human rights institutions to speak up against Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
“Hamdouna is one of the victims of Israel’s preplanned executions” said the head of the prisoners and ex-prisoners committee Issa Qaraqe.
Spokesperson for the Palestine Center for Studies Reyad al-Ashqar said Hamdouna has been suffering since 2014 from unbearable earaches and did not receive treatment despite his frequent cries for help.
Hamdouna was arrested on June 19 2003 and sentenced to life on charges of anti-occupation resistance.
Human rights groups say at least 208 Palestinians have lost their lives in Israeli prisons and detention centers 55 of whom died as result of medical negligence.
