A Palestinian prisoners' rights group has warned about the life-threatening conditions and inadequate care faced by the abducted al-Mayadeen TV news channel's Palestine bureau chief at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced in a statement that “Nasser al-Lahham, a 60-year-old prisoner with heart conditions, is being held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the incarceration facility. He is permitted just 10 minutes outside his cell each day.”
The statement added that Lahham is currently detained in Section 21, Cell 19 of Ofer Prison, where prisoners endure severely overcrowded conditions, inadequate food, and outbreaks of skin infections, all while being denied proper medical attention.
This comes after a military court in Ofer Prison decided on Sunday to extend Lahham's detention for three more days.
“The Israeli occupation is attempting to fabricate new charges against Nasser al-Lahham,” Shawan Rateb Abdallah Jabarin, the general director of the Palestinian al-Haq human rights organization, said.
He added that “it appears the occupation is pushing for Lahham’s administrative detention, an arbitrary measure meant to silence dissent.”
War on media: Israeli forces abduct Al Mayadeen bureau chief in West Bank raid
Jabarin noted that Israeli authorities are attempting to manufacture a list of charges against Lahham, and his administrative detention resembles “fighting with the wind.”
Lahham, a veteran journalist reporting from Palestine, is the editor-in-chief of Ma’an News Agency and director of al-Mayadeen TV’s office in Palestine.
Al-Mayadeen TV has categorically denounced the detention of its bureau chief in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The channel said the arrest was carried out with “brutality and repression,” demanding Lahham’s immediate release.
Al-Mayadeen TV labeled Lahham's detention as part of a wider campaign of repression carried out by Israeli authorities against Palestinian journalists.
“We are not surprised by the occupation’s sadistic practices, nor by its persistent hostility toward journalism, journalists, and the right to report the truth,” the news channel said.
“For us, Nasser is more than a bureau chief. He is a leading voice in Palestinian journalism, a symbol of purposeful reporting, and a steadfast defender of his people’s rights,” the news channel highlighted.
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