A Palestinian advocacy group says Maher Saasa received the COVID-19 vaccine one day before his death but the cause of death is still unknown.
A Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison has died in obscure circumstances, according to two Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups.
The Prisoners ‘Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association (PPS) said Maher Deeb Saasa, 45, from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, died Wednesday in a Rimonim prison north of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
They said Saasa, a father of six, received a coronavirus vaccine shot Tuesday, adding that he had been suffering from a number of chronic illnesses.
“There is still no clear information as to the causes of his death… his case will be followed up and the causes will be investigated,” the joint statement said.
Both groups said Israel is fully responsible for his death as well as the life and well-being of every Palestinian prisoner in his prisons.
No comment came from Israel.
Saasa, who was jailed since 2006, was serving a 25-year sentence.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, at least 290 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons have been infected with the coronavirus.
Palestinian prison and rights groups have called on international parties to intervene against the health negligence used by the Israeli prison service on Palestinian prisoners.
The PPS said it remained “deeply concerned about the dangerous developments” in the release of COVID-19 among prisoners.
He specifically cited Israeli prison administration in Ramon prison – where most of Palestinian ex-prisoners are – accusing them of delaying testing the prisoners, which they said added widespread distribution.
Ramon was abruptly shut down last December, the PPS said at the time that the rise in cases among Israeli spies was “the first source of the virus’s spread to the prisoners”.
Saasa’s death brings to 227 the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967.
Israel holds about 4,400 Palestinians – including 41 women and 170 children – 380 of whom are detained without charge or trial under its administrative detention policy.