Palestinian female detainee dies in Israeli occupation prison due to medical negligence

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- 68-year-old Palestinian female detainee, Saadia Matar died on Saturday in an Israeli occupation prison, rising the number of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli captivity to 230.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced that Saadia Matar died yesterday in the Israeli occupation prison of Damon. Matar was one of 32 Palestinian female detainees held in Israeli prison of Damon near occupied Haifa.

The PPS accused the Damon prison administration of medical negligence as Matar’s health condition had recently been in decline due to multiple chronic illnesses, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

The PPS confirmed that Matar lost consciousness after performing her ablutions for morning prayers. Fellow detainees had immediately transferred her to the prison’s clinic, where she died.

On December 18, 2021, Matar was brutally beaten and arrested by Israeli occupation forces near a military checkpoint in Hebron’s old city for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing operation, and this had aggravated her already weak health.

Matar, a mother of eight from Idna town in Hebron, was the oldest Palestinian female detainee. With her death, the total number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 rises to 230.

The PPS also said that Matar attended a court hearing in a wheelchair on 28 June, when the prosecution sought a five-year prison sentence and 15,000 shekel ($4,200) fine.

The PPS said that the female Palestinian detainees at Damon face particularly harsh conditions and suffer from ongoing neglect.

Several Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups stated they will seek to open an investigation to reveal the circumstances surrounding Matar’s death.

The Palestinian commission of detainees and ex-detainees affairs has called today the occupation authorities to hand over Matar’s body to her family in order to uncover the reasons led to her death.

There are currently 4,700 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including 32 women and 170 children, according to Palestinian prisoners’ rights group of Addameer.

Of those, more than 600 Palestinian detainees suffer from a wide range of illnesses and lack of access to proper medical care, 200 of them have been diagnosed with chronic diseases, including 22 who have been diagnosed with cancer, Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human rights organisation has recently said.