RAMALLAH (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has prevented Palestinian ex-detainee Ismail Taqatiqa, a 40-year-old from Beit Fajjar town in Bethlehem, from traveling to Jordan to complete his medical treatment for leukemia.
The IOA had already refused to allow Taqatiqa to enter 1948 occupied Palestine (Israel) to receive cancer treatment at an Israeli hospital, citing security concerns.
This came in a joint statement released on Monday by the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).
The Commission and PPS described the Israeli decision to deprive Taqatiqa of treatment once again as “part of the compound crime that has been committed against him with the aim of killing him.”
Before his detention, which lasted for five months, Taqatiqa was not suffering from any health problem, but about one week before his release, he was transferred to the Hadassah Hospital on August 29, 2024.
Later after his release from the hospital and jail in poor health condition, he was diagnosed with blood cancer.
The statement accused the IOA of committing a “medical crime” against Taqatiqa, affirming that he had been exposed to difficult and harsh incarceration conditions, although he complained about health issues during his presence in jail.
The statement pointed out that the majority of the prisoners who were released from Israeli jails and detention centers following the war on Gaza suffer from health problems or serious diseases.
