Ashqar: Child death should have have touched world conscience

[ 25/04/2011 - 09:18 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- If the world community had one iota of mercy, ethics, or humanitarian feelings it would have been shocked at the scene of the little Palestinian child Abeer Eskafi who died as a result of not being able to see her detained father in Israeli occupation jails, Riad Al-Ashqar, the spokesman for the prisoners' ministry, said on Monday.

Eskafi, from Al-Khalil, was traumatized after Israeli prison administration did not allow her to see her father who is serving four life sentences in Beer Sheba desert prison, Ashqar said.

He added that the child's condition later worsened until she was paralyzed then died. "Regretfully the world does not care about the suffering of our poeple", he said.

If the same thing happened to one of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit's parents or his old grandfather for not being able to see their son the whole world would have stood up in rage and would have labeled the Palestinian people as war criminals who should be punished, the spokesman elaborated.

Ashqar, who was speaking at a ceremony organized by the women branch of Hamas east of Rafah to honor families of Palestinian prisoners, explained the suffering of Palestinian prisoners and their relatives due to the Israeli visit deprivation policy.

He also tackled the deliberate medical neglect of prisoners on the part of the Israeli prison service (IPS), relaying a number of incidents due to such a sustained policy during which some of the prisoners died.

The spokesman charged the IPS with delaying urgent surgeries for years, giving prisoners expired medication or not fit for their diseases, and finally depriving them of proper meals.

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