Death of security prisoner from cancer sparks hunger strike in jail

PA minister: Israeli negligence responsible for prisoner's death.

By BEN HARTMAN
issa.qaraqa.370 (photo credit: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)
issa.qaraqa.370
(photo credit: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)
Around 3,000 security prisoners sent back their meals on Tuesday following news that a fellow prisoner had died in an Israeli hospital after a long bout with leukemia.
The Prisons Service said that prisoners began banging on doors and throwing trash in the cell blocks for a short period of time before the situation cooled off.
The prisoner, 23-year-old Hasan Turabi, was jailed in Megiddo Prison in January for throwing Molotov cocktails and possession of firearms. Turabi was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 but it was in remission when he started his sentence, the Prisons Service said Tuesday.
Turabi’s cancer returned in October and a little over two weeks ago, the decision was made by the military court to release him from prison for treatment at the Valley Medical Center in Afula, where he passed away on Tuesday.
Because of his physical condition and the decision to release him to the hospital, he technically had civilian status at the time of his death, the Prisons Service said.