Embassy of the State of Palestine

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad expresses his deep sorrow and sincere condolences to the nation and prisoner movement for the death of prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiya, who died this Tuesday morning in Israeli custody. The Prime Minister also extends his condolences to the family of the prisoner and to our freedom defenders in prison as well as all our people in the country and the Diaspora. The Prime Minister expresses his conviction that the distinguished role that the martyr prisoner had in the national struggle for freedom and his contributions to the just cause of our people will remain alive in our national memory and continued struggle for freedom.

In this regard, the Prime Minister strongly condemns the continued policy of medical negligence of Israeli prison authorities against prisoners as well as the delay in providing them with proper medical treatment and delayed diagnosis of cancer among prisoners.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister strongly condemns the delay in reaching the cancer for martyr Abu Hamdiya until it had spread throughout his body, affirming that this delay was a primary reason for his martyrdom.

Dr. Fayyad affirms that this tragic incident requires the international community and all relevant human rights organizations to assume its political, legal, and moral responsibilities, to compel Israel to respect international law, including the required international monitoring of these prisons by relevant human rights organizations in order to have access to the facts about conditions inside Israeli prisons, especially in relation to the medical care provided to prisoners. The Prime Minister also calls for the immediate implementation of the resolution adopted by the World Health Organization on forming a fact - finding mission to investigate the health conditions of prisoners as well as the
recent European Parliament resolution to send a fact-finding committee to investigate the conditions of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.