Palestinian prisoner hospitalized after health failure

[ 06/02/2011 - 05:23 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Family awaits the fate of Ahmed Hamid al-Najjar, 34, since he was transferred to the Israeli Sabe' prison hospital a week ago. Najjar's wife phoned the Ahrar prisoner rights center expressing concern over a letter she received that her husband was spotted over a week back bound by the legs in the prison's hospital. The Silwad native, who is also a US national, was arrested in December 2003 and later diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer that cost him his speech. According to Ahrar center director Fouad al-Khafsh, Najjar was recovering but an opening in his neck that aided his breathing closed up leading to a deteriorating medical condition and breathing difficulties. He has since been receiving treatment. "The center has received serious indications of an increase in prisoners diagnosed with cancer, those whose treatment was put off by Israeli authorities until the disease worsened and became difficult to cure," Khafsh said. "They are then treated with chemotherapy, which inflicts exhaustion and extreme fatigue on the Palestinian prisoner, who does not find any care."