Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, condemns the crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces and the Israeli Prison Authorities, which led to the killing prisoner (Mohammed Ahmed Rateb al-Sabbar) from Dhahiriya in the Hebron Governorate. Martyr Al- Sabbar has been held in administrative detention since 2022 in Ofer Prison. The prisoner died as a result of deliberate medical negligence applied by the occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners, reflecting a systematic policy pursued by the occupation against them. The center also warned against the danger of the Israeli political level issuing orders and instructions to the occupation forces and the Prison Authorities to commit a massacre under various pretexts against Palestinian prisoners, in light of reports and information indicating the nearing of a prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and the occupation state. The center also warned against targeting the leadership of the prisoner movement, as the occupation is racing against time to torture and assault the prisoners, including an increase in the number of prisoners killed inside the Israeli prisons since October 2023. These practices represent a clear and dangerous indication of the organized execution policy pursued by the Israeli occupation against the prisoners.
Center condemns the Israeli Knesset’s preliminary reading decision that deprives Gaza prisoners of the right to appoint a lawyer to represent them in Israeli courts, and the policies used by the occupation against prisoners, including physical and psychological torture, brutal beatings, exposure to extreme temperatures or high humidity, facial beatings, bone fractures, strip searches, prolonged solitary confinement, visitation restrictions, medical negligence, especially for sick prisoners suffering from chronic diseases. The martyr Mohammed al-Sabbar was one of these prisoners, as he suffered from stomach and digestive system diseases and lacked adequate healthcare services, making Israeli prisons resemble graves for the living.
SHAMS Center affirms that the applied practices against the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons, represent a profound violation of the International Law. In particular, the Israeli practices violate the Geneva Third Convention. Article 30 of the Convention states: “Prisoners of war suffering from serious disease, or whose condition necessitates special treatment, a surgical operation or hospital care, must be admitted to any military or civilian medical unit where such treatment can be given, even if their repatriation is contemplated in the near future. Special facilities shall be afforded for the care to be given to the disabled, in particular to the blind, and for their rehabilitation, pending repatriation”. Article 31 of the given Convention states: “Medical inspections of prisoners of war shall be held at least once a month. They shall include the checking and the recording of the weight of each prisoner of war”. The administrative detention of Palestinian prisoners violates the second optional protocol annexed to the Geneva Convention as administrative detention orders are issued and extended without a court ruling and is based on secret accusations. Article 6 of the Protocol stipulates: “No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality”.
SHAMS Center calls for the International Commission of the Red Cross, World Health Organization, Medicines Without Borders, The United Nations Rapporteur on the Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Governmental and non-governmental organizations, to immediately act to exert pressure on the Israeli government to stop its crimes against the Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli occupation must stop applying the policy of administrative detention against Palestinians, which is based on the emergency laws of the British Mandate from the thirties of the previous century.