RAMALLAH, Malek Hamed, a 27-year-old Palestinian held in Israeli solitary confinement at Megiddo Prison, is currently facing deteriorating health conditions inside his cell as a result of maltreatment and lack of access to basic requirements, today said the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

Hamed, who comes from the West Bank village of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, has been in solitary confinement for a couple of months and without access to essential services, including badly needed access to the prison’s cafeteria and denial of his right for family visitation, said the PPS.

In September of this year, Hamed was placed in solitary confinement after he poured hot water on an Israeli prison guard in response to a crackdown by Israeli prison authorities on thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, which came in the aftermath of the escape of six Palestinian freedom fighters from the highly fortified Israeli prison of Gilboa. As a result, he was placed in solitary confinement and is being punished in the most severe way, said the PPS.

Hamed has been in prison since April 2017 serving two life sentences after he was convicted of carrying out a car-ramming attack that resulted in the killing of Israeli occupation soldiers.

Over 4,500 Palestinians and a few other Arab nationals are currently held in Israeli prisons for their activism in the resistance of the Israeli occupation. Many of these prisoners are being held in isolation as a punishment.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency