Ramallah- In her home in the Marhaba neighborhood of Ramallah, Latifa Abu Hamid sat among a large number of visitors to her home, asking about the latest developments in the conditions of her captive son, Nasser Abu Hamid, after his health deteriorated and he was transferred from his prison to Barzilai Hospital in the occupied interior.
Despite the hustle and bustle of the place around her, Latifa, whom the Palestinian street knew for her strength and toughness, and who was nicknamed the “Oak of Palestine”, seemed weak, anxious and absent-minded, as she did not know about her son’s fate except for the few news that the lawyer carried after his visit to the hospital.
While hundreds of camp residents marched in solidarity with Nasser from the heart of the camp to Al-Manara Square in the center of Ramallah, she remained at home, unable to participate. life.
Her son, Basil Abu Hamid, who is also a released prisoner, says that his mother was known for her strength and toughness during the arrest of her sons, and in some years 7 of her sons were in prison, one of them was martyred and her house was demolished 4 times, but she could not bear the news of Nasser’s setback and his coma, which forced them to enter her Hospital for treatment, and is still suffering from the disease until now.
For his mother, Nasser was an icon of steadfastness, who bore his nickname even though he was not her eldest son, and she became known in all local, Arab and international forums as Umm Nasser Abu Hamid.
In the details of what happened with Nasser, Basil Abu Hamid told Al Jazeera Net, “All we made sure of is that Nasser is in a coma in intensive care in the hospital, and he is suffering from a high temperature and his condition is very critical.”
We are conducting extensive calls with the #Israeli government about the deteriorating health condition of prisoner, Nasser Abu Hmaid, who is suffering from disease, we are demanding his immediate release to receive the necessary treatment and to save his life https://t.co/YQ9LJTyhgv
— Hussein Al Sheikh (@HusseinSheikhpl) January 4, 2022
From misdiagnosis to cancer
Symptoms of the disease began to appear on Abu Hamid last August, and the Israeli Prison Service announced at that time that he suffers from the presence of a fatty mass “benign tumor” in the lung, and after procrastinating in setting a date for the operation, part of the lung was removed, to find out that the diagnosis was wrong and that he suffers from a tumor. Malignant “lung cancer”.
Despite the seriousness of his health, the Prisons Authority returned him to his prison in Ashkelon only days after the operation, with scheduled sessions for chemotherapy.
During this period, Abu Hamid was suffering from setbacks in his health, and the Prison Authority was satisfied with transferring him to the hospital and returning him the next day, without completing his treatment in full, and with the start of receiving chemotherapy, his health completely deteriorated.
On Tuesday (January 4), the family received news that he had been suddenly transferred to Barzilai Hospital inside the occupied territories, and that he was suffering from high temperatures and coughing, and when communicating with the Prisons Authority Administration, she said that it was a side effect of chemotherapy. But in fact, as his brother says, Nasser suffered a setback since the beginning of the week, and that the Prison Authority tried to prevaricate by not informing the family of his health condition and that he was in the intensive care unit in a coma.
According to Abu Hamid’s brother, the prison administration tried to manipulate the family by claiming that he was not in a coma and that the doctors had put him in sleep, in addition to preventing the lawyer from visiting him after allowing him to enter the hospital where Abu Hamid is being held, or speaking with doctors to find out his health condition.
He pointed out that the family tried more than once to admit a private doctor at their expense, but the Israeli Prison Authority refused their request.
Not only that, the Prison Authority administration refused to inform his four brothers who are detained in prisons and who, like Nasser, are serving a life sentence, including Nasr, his brother, who moved months ago to the same department to take care of him.
Amidst the reports about the seriousness of his health, the family appealed to everyone who could intervene with the occupation to pressure him to release him and transfer him to receive the necessary treatment for him, holding the occupation fully responsible for what he reached due to deliberate health neglect since the beginning of his illness.
The head of the Public Authority for Civil Affairs, Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, had announced “intensive contacts with the Israeli government about the serious health condition of the prisoner, Nasser Abu Hamid, who is suffering from the disease,” and demanded via Twitter that he be released immediately to receive the necessary treatment and save his life.
Despite the seriousness of his health, the family hopes that he will be able to defeat the disease as he defeated his previous injury in 1999 when he was arrested while he was hit by 10 bullets that penetrated his body and underwent dozens of surgeries and was able to bypass it and get back on his feet again.
The prisoner, Nasser Abu Hamid, is 49 years old, and he spent 33 years in the occupation prisons. His first arrest was in 1985 and he was not more than 13 years old, only to be arrested in 1999 at the age of 19 after being chased by the occupation, which accused him of carrying out a series of resistance operations in the second intifada within the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah movement, at the time.
systematic crime
The deterioration of the health conditions of the prisoner Abu Hamid and the treatment of the prison administration’s administration sheds new light on the medical neglect in the occupation prisons, as the difficult health setbacks of the prisoners are due to the extent of the medical negligence practiced by the prison authority against them, especially those with high sentences, says the media spokeswoman for the prisoner’s club, Amani Farina.
Amani Farahna, who has followed up Abu Hamid’s case since the beginning of his illness last August, added to Al Jazeera Net, “We are facing a crime, from the time he was diagnosed with cancer until he was confirmed to have cancer, the prison administration dealt with great neglect with him, so how can a cancer patient be returned with the possibility that the disease will spread to His whole body was imprisoned just days after his operation?!”
According to Amani, during the period between the operation and today, Abu Hamid relapsed more, and each time he was transferred to the hospital, only to be returned days later without completing his treatment completely. In addition to the structure of Ashkelon Prison, where he is held, which is considered one of the worst prisons, in terms of high humidity and difficult living conditions.
And she continued, “The situation that Abu Hamid has reached is the result of a series of measures taken by the prison administration against him and others. As we note over the past years, all the prisoners who were martyred in prisons (this was) as a result of diseases and medical negligence.”
According to Palestinian Prisoner Club figures, there are 550 sick prisoners in the occupation prisons, including 18 cases of cancer and various tumors, 4 of whom are in late stages of the disease.
