Angry protests in Jenin village following death of prisoner

S pontaneous angry marches and protests took place on Tuesday in the village of Silat al-Daher, south of the northern West Bank city of J...

Spontaneous angry marches and protests took place on Tuesday in the village of Silat al-Daher, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, home of Palestinian prisoner Sami Abu Diyak who died this morning from cancer while behind Israeli bars.


The protests started from schools with the participation of several institutions from the village and nearby villages in condemnation of the Israeli prison policy of medical negligence that led to the death of Abu Diyak. They called on the world to urgently intervene to put an end to what they said was Israeli crimes.

Shops were closed as a general strike was declared, while protesters set fire to tires and put roadblocks at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Homesh, while hoisting Palestinian flag.


Abu Diyak, 37, was detained on 17 July 2002 and was sentenced to triple life terms plus 30 years, of which he spent 17 years behind bars before his death. He was diagnosed with an intestinal cancer in September 2015 and his condition began to deteriorate as a result of medical mistakes by the Israeli Soroka hospital in the south of Israel where he underwent surgery to remove 83 cm of his large intestine.

With the death of Abu Diyak, the number of Palestinian prisoners who died as a result of medical negligence has reached 222 since 1967, more than a third of them while in custody.