Fou’ad Al Shobaki, 76, from the Gaza Strip, detained at Beer Shiva prison, is undergoing a critical deterioration in his health with medical tests showing both liver and prostate cancer. Al Shobaki needs continuous medical care, which is not made available to him by the Israeli Prison Administration (IPA), which lacks specialized medical teams in prisons to follow their health. According to Palestinian prisoners, long delays and lack of concern are cited as the norm. Such medical negligence amounts to serious violations of detainee rights.

According to the affidavit – given to Al Mezan in the course of our investigation by Al Shobaki’s son Hazem, 28 – Al Shobaki began complaining about his health six years ago. The drugs prescribed to Al Shobaki were not effective. The IPA allowed Hazem to seek a medical referral for his father at Soroka Medical Center in Israel. The medical tests there showed that Al Shobaki had cancer in the upper part of his liver; it was removed. Two years later, medical tests show that he was suffering from prostate cancer.

Al Shobaki was detained on 2 May 2006 by the Palestinian Authority and was referred to Jericho prison. On 14 March 2006, Israeli forces broke into the prison and took Al Shobaki to an Israeli interrogation center. He was then sentenced to 20 years in prison. His lawyer appealed the sentence, which was commuted to 17 years of imprisonment. He serves his sentence being transferred from one prison to another in Israel.

Al Mezan strongly condemns Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, including medical negligence of patients. Such prison practices amount to violations of articles (24, 25, and 26) on medical care of prisoners of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment adopted in 1988.

Al Mezan calls on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to respect principles of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law in dealing with Palestinian detainees and prisoners, and to intervene to save the lives of those detainees held in Israeli prisons.

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