A detainee from Gaza behind bars since 25 years

Friday May 30, 2008 10:30 by IMEMC News

Palestinian researcher, specialized in detainees’ affairs at the Census Department of the Palestinian Ministry for Detainees, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, stated on Thursday that detainee Saleem Ibrahim Al Kayyal, 56, has been imprisoned by Israel since more than 25 years.

Saleem Al Kayyal

Farawna added that there are 14 Palestinian detainees who have been imprisoned since more than 25 years, eight of them are from the West Bank, three are Arab residents of Israel, one from Jerusalem and one from the Gaza Strip in addition to the Lebanese detainee Sameer Al Quntar.

Farawna also stated that detainee Al Kayyal, from the Gaza Strip and was born in 1952, was kidnapped by the Israeli forces on May, 30, 1983. He is a member of Fateh movement, married and has one daughter.

Al Kayyal is currently imprisoned at the Nafha detention camp and suffers from several health issues including diabetes and high blood pressure.  

Al Kayyal was kidnapped four times starting in 1976 and spent four years behind bars for membership with Fateh movement. Before he was kidnapped in 1983, he got married and was arrested while his wife was pregnant.

His daughter is now married and she never managed to be close to her father without the barbed wires and bars.

The wife of Al Kayyal stated that she is extremely worried over the health condition of her husband, especially due to the medical negligence in Israeli prisons and her being unable to visit him since two years due to the Israeli restrictions.  

Farawna said that the long years behind bars and all the ongoing suffering had failed to harm the high spirits and will of Al Kayyal who remains as one of the main figures among the Palestinian political detainees.

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