Israeli prison’s administration isolates sick Palestinian prisoner in need of heart surgery

Wafa– The Israeli Asqalan prison’s administration Monday held sick Palestinian prisoner Atef Wreidat in solitary confinement because he was protesting the delay of his heart surgery that he desperately needs by the prison’s administration, according to Wreidat’s lawyer.

The lawyer said that Wreidat is on hunger strike and refuses to take his medicine since ten days, protesting the prison’s administration's arbitrary measures against him.

Atef Wreidat, 45, from Al-Dahiriyeh, a town south of Hebron, suffers from a heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes and in desperate need of an open heart surgery. The prison's administration keeps delaying his surgery, posing a threat to his life.

According to the lawyer, the prison’s administration held Wreidat in solitary confinement, which is a very narrow unsanitary poorly ventilated cell, which has a foul odor, putting his life in real danger; he cannot stand up and suffers from dehydration, cracks in the tongue and lips as well as from vomiting.

He added that imprisoning Wreidat in solitary confinement, while he is going on a continuous hunger strike and refusing to take medicine is a death sentence.

The prison’s administration had imposed several sanctions on Wreidat; preventing him from family visits, entering the canteen for two months, continuing his education for a year, in addition to imposing a fine on him.

Qaddura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoner's Club (PPC), described the prison’s administration’s measures against Wreidat a criminal act, holding the administration fully responsible for his life and demanding that Wreidat be immediately transferred to a hospital to receive the proper treatment.

He said that what goes on inside the Israeli prisons is a state of an insane hysteria against Palestinian prisoners and the international community must find an immediate solution to save the prisoners’ lives and preserve their just rights

Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees and the PPC are to hold on Tuesday a press conference in the presence of Wreidat’s family at the Ministry of Information headquarter.

In a related development, PPC will hold a protest on Tuesday in Hebron, in solidarity with Wreidat.