Palestinian prisoner succumbs to injuries

A Palestinian prisoner who had been assaulted by guards in an Israeli jail has succumbed to his injuries, the man’s brother has said.

Jihad Abd al-Rahman al-Taweel died at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba late Monday, Sharif al-Taweel told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.

The 47-year-old man from al-Quds (Jerusalem) had passed out during an assault by Israeli guards on his ward earlier in February.

The father of five was serving a three-month sentence in Beersheba prison after Israeli police caught him driving a vehicle without a driver’s license.

A week after Taweel was hospitalized, the Israeli prison service had asked his family to sign discharge papers, but the family refused to sign until they could ensure his situation had stabilized enough for him to be discharged.

Earlier in the month, head of the Census Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees Abdul-Nasser Ferwana said the Israeli regime is currently holding captive over 4,800 Palestinians, including children and women.

Ferwana said that the Israeli regime is holding the prisoners in seventeen prisons as well as detention and interrogation centers.

The Palestinian official said that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped and detained more than 10,000 Palestinian children since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000