The president of the PPS, Qadura Fares, criticized the decision of the Israeli Parliament to approve, in first reading, a bill that eliminates funds for the said service, noting that this will legalize the slow killing of Palestinians.

For decades, the occupying authorities took various actions to kill Palestinian inmates, Fares said in a statement. The current situation in Israeli prisons can no longer be described as medical negligence, due to the number of patients without adequate treatment, he stressed.

Earlier this month a Palestinian detainee, identified as Ahmed Badr Abdullah Abu Ali, 48, died as a result of years of inadequate health care provided by the Israeli authorities.

The Commission for Prisoners and Former Prisoners Affairs recently condemned the inhumane treatment of sick Palestinians in Israeli prisons and warned that such a policy is a threat to their lives.

According to the Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies, of the 700 detainees with health problems in Israeli prisons, some 160 suffer from chronic diseases such as cancer, kidney and heart failure, diabetes, muscle atrophy and clogged arteries.

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