OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (The Palestinian Information Center) The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy (PCPA) has issued a warning about the serious health risks threatening the lives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails due to the widespread outbreak of scabies among them.
In a statement on Wednesday, PCPA said it “follows with deep concern the ongoing reports about the spread of scabies among the thousands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, which lack the most basic elements of human life and living conditions.”
“This is part of the Israeli prison service’s clear determination to turn these detention centers, prisons, interrogation centers, and holding facilities into certain places of death due to the policy of systematic medical neglect,” PCPA added.
“The series of punitive measures imposed by the prison service on the prisoners, including the denial of the simplest natural rights of any human being, such as the prohibition of bathing, cutting off water supply, confiscating all personal hygiene items like soap, shampoo, and toothpaste, as well as preventing prisoners from getting haircuts or shaving, in addition to depriving them of personal clothing except for what they are wearing — forcing the prisoner to wash it and wait for it to dry or wear it while it’s still wet — are all deliberate and systematic measures aimed at undermining the prisoner’s resilience and spirit, stripping them of their human and personal identity, ultimately leading to a slow and silent death,” PCPA explained.
PCPA appealed to the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene swiftly with medical and humanitarian assistance and find a solution to this worsening tragedy.
“Humanity as a whole is facing an ethical and moral test in the face of this horrifying situation for more than ten thousand prisoners inside Israeli occupation prisons,” PCPA said.
