Kadari Abu-Yusuf, the head of the Palestinian Authority's Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Committee, said on Monday that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has asked to immediately prepare the list of sick PA prisoners held by Israel in order to transfer it to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Speaking to the PA's official Wafa news agency, Abu-Yusuf said that the move was based on the decision of the ICC's chief prosecutor to open an investigation into the war crimes committed by Israel, subject to the court's approval. He said his committee has been preparing cases charging intentional medical neglect in Israeli prisons, as well as the offsetting the salaries of prisoners and the families of the martyrs from the taxes that Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority. Of the more than 5,500 prisoners claimed by the PA to be held by Israel, they define more than 700 as ill, ten suffering from cancer and more than 200 from chronic diseases.