Palestinian prisoners today are trapped fighting two fronts: one against the coronavirus pandemic, and the other against Israel’s horrific jail conditions.
Four Palestinian prisoners have so far tested positive for the coronavirus with the number
expected to increase greatly. Another detainee tested positive for the virus a few days after his release.
There are approximately 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli jails, according to prisoners’ rights group Addameer.
In an open letter published on Wednesday titled “Rescue us from coronavirus, so our prisons do turn into graves,” 35 Palestinian prisoners suffering from critical illness said: “We don’t hear nor see any serious arrangements to answer our questions: what if coronavirus spreads in the prisons? What are the practical measures that will be taken in a human way by the Israel Prison Service?”
The letter added that there are hundreds of prisoners suffering from health issues, including asthma, heart diseases, blood pressure, diabetes and cancers.
More than 2,000 cases of infection and five deaths have been reported in Israel, and around 60 cases in the occupied West Bank.
More than 700 male and female prisoners in Israeli jails are in need of serious healthcare – 17 of whom are in critical condition in the Ramla Prison hospital, which lacks adequate standards of medical care.
The majority are cramped in tight quarters, where prisoners cannot practice any form of social distancing, and are left without the necessary cleaning equipment and medical care to ensure their safety from even a less deadly contagion, let alone the potentially fatal coronavirus.
Numerous organisations have warned that it would take only one infected person to spread the virus across the whole captive population and lead to a devastating tragedy.
