Ramallah, Oct. 14 (Petra) -- Palestinian Prisoners Society head Abdullah Zaghari warned of escalating torture, starvation, and medical neglect against 9,400 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons.

Zaghari said in a statement Wednesday that the prisoners face harsh health and living conditions. He cited the denial of medical treatment and family visits, and a ban on Red Cross visits.

Torture is no longer a series of isolated cases, he stressed, but continuing violations that have persisted for years. He said these include storming prisoners' cells, assaulting them and threatening their lives. He added that prisoners are deprived of food, blankets and medical care, and that some have faced harassment and sexual assaults.

Most prisoners suffer health problems from the spread of scabies, injuries from assaults, and a lack of medical care, he detailed. Freed prisoners continue to be taken to hospitals for treatment of serious complications they suffered inside prisons.

Zaghari highlighted the threat to the life of prisoner Mahmoud Wardian, who was taken to a government hospital after his release. He said Wardian fainted and fell into a coma. Another prisoner is being treated at an Israeli hospital for diabetes, he added.

He called on the international community and human rights and legal institutions to act to protect the prisoners and hold those responsible for the violations accountable. He warned that their health conditions continue to deteriorate amid a lack of oversight and restrictions on rights groups' access to prisons.

//Petra// NQ