Palestinian detainee appears in very poor health after release from Israeli jail

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - A Palestinian detainee appeared to be in very poor health after being released by Israeli authorities on late Wednesday.

Upon his release, Farouk Khatib, 30, was hospitalized in Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

"The situation in the Israeli prisons are very harsh, especially after Oct. 7 [...] despite my (cancer) illness I was subject to beating, insults and torture," Khatib told Anadolu.

Ismail, his father, told Anadolu that Khatib "suffered medical negligence and torture," adding that his son "was beaten with a gas cylinder by an Israeli warden."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) "held the Israeli occupation prison administration fully responsible for the serious health condition" of Khatib.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Khatib was detained in the Ofer prison near Ramallah and then transferred to the Israeli Nafha prison. He, according to the news agency, was later moved to the Ramleh prison clinic and then to the Soroka Hospital where he was released after being diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer.

PPS said that Khatib was not the only case of detainee released from the Israeli prisons in poor health condition.

Palestinian figures estimate that there are currently 7,800 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, in addition to hundreds of others arrested from Gaza.

* Writing by Ahmed Asmar