Palestinian humanitarian worker Mohammad al-Halabi, who headed the American World Vision organization, is in serious health condition due to torture, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.
Halabi, 42, from Jabalya refugee camp, was in charge of the Gaza Strip office of World Vision and is now suffering from serious headaches. After losing hearing, he may also lose sight in his eyes due to the torture he underwent after his arrest in Israel.
Israel has launched an international campaign to persuade the world that the rights and international organizations and the aid organizations are controlled by Hamas. However, Palestinian rights organizations said that Israel seeks to defame them abroad.
On June 15, 2016, Halabi was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at the Beit Hanoun (Eretz) Crossing which separates besieged Gaza from Israel, in a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet security service, the Israeli army, and Israeli police.
Since then, he appeared in Israeli courts 135 times in what the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs refers to as “one of the longest trials in the history of the Palestinian captive movement”.
The occupation authorities keep him detained under the pretext that he was involved in transferring World Vision money to Palestinian factions, though there is no tangible evidence proving this charge.
The Commission held the prison's administration responsible for the lives of detainees, namely those who are sick amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Israeli prisons have around 5,000 Palestinian inmates including 200 children and 42 women.
