Israeli forces have attacked Palestinians taking part in a protest in support of Nasser Abu Hamid, a cancer patient held in Israeli jails, as his health condition seriously deteriorates.
Palestinian sources said that clashes erupted between protesters and Israeli troops near the entrance to the town of Beita, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, on Sunday evening as Palestinians gathered to voice solidarity with Abu Hamid.
The protesters chanted slogans such as “Nasser, Go! Go! We are behind you until your liberation.”
Qadri Abu Bakr, the head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, has said Abu Hamid was in a “very serious condition,” noting that he was transferred to an Israeli jail last week “after a serious deterioration in his health condition.”
“We can hear news of the martyrdom of the prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid at any moment,” Yasser Muzhir, representative of the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad at the detainees’ commission for national and Islamic powers, said on Sunday evening.
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He stressed that the Israeli prisons’ authority “does not care about” the ill Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs said on Monday that Abu Hamid was still in a coma and was still placed on a respirator.
The committee noted that efforts exerted to release the prisoner are still to no avail.
The health condition of Abu Hamid, who has been in jail since 2002, has deteriorated since August 2021.
Last October, he underwent surgery to remove a lung tumor and was transferred to the Israeli jail before a complete recovery.
He has begun to receive chemotherapy just recently after a deliberate delay by the Israeli authorities.
Abu Hamid has received seven life sentences and a 50-year jail term.
There are thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Geneva Convention.
Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards.
Palestinian inmates have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.
Since May, Beita has seen intensified clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians protesting against a settlement outpost that has been established on Sobeih Mountain by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.
