Abbas announces an international campaign to provide protection for the Palestinian people

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced an international campaign to put everyone before his legal and historical responsibilities in order to protect the Palestinian people.

This came in a speech he delivered during a meeting held at the presidential residence in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, Tuesday, on international action to confront the colonial and racist practices of the Israeli occupation authorities, according to the official Palestinian News Agency.

The agency stated that the meeting came in light of the formation of an extreme right-wing Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the martyrdom of the prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid in the Israeli occupation prisons.

The official Palestinian news agency quoted Abbas as saying, “We will launch a broad international campaign to place everyone before their legal and historical responsibilities in order to provide international protection for our defenseless people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.”

He added that the life of Nasser Abu Hamid summarizes the reality of the long-standing injustice experienced by the Palestinian people, holding the Israeli government fully responsible for his killing. And the Palestinian President added that the assassination of Nasser Abu Hamid is a full-fledged war crime.

At dawn, Tuesday, the Prisoners Affairs Authority of the Palestine Liberation Organization announced in a statement that the prisoner Abu Hamid, 50 yearsold, died in the Israeli Assaf Harofeh Hospital as a result of medical negligence.

In a related context, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held Israel fully responsible for the death of Abu Hamid as a result of the policy of deliberate medical negligence and denial of basic rights practiced by the Israeli prison administration against prisoners.

The organization called for the formation of an international commission of inquiry to follow up on this new crime, which is added to the record of Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people, including prisoners.

Abu Hamid is from the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment 7 times and an additional 50 years on charges of participating in the establishment of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades affiliated with the Fatih movement and carrying out operations against the Israeli army.

Israel detains 4,700 Palestinians in its prisons including 150 children and 33 women, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.