Hawzah News Agency (Occupied Palestine) - Israel is intentionally neglecting Palestinian prisoners and denying them minimum health rights amid the coronavirus pandemic, a Palestinian prisoner rights advocacy group says.

Tel Aviv has never cared about the health and lives of Palestinian prisoners before or after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, said spokesman for Asra Media Office, Ali al-Maghrabi, in an interview with the Palestine information Center on Sunday.

He warned that arbitrary policies used in Israeli jails “are jeopardizing the lives of prisoners.”

“To date, the occupation authority has not taken the necessary precautions to protect more than 5,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, including women, the elderly, children and sick prisoners,” Maghrabi added.

He also called on local, Arab and international human rights groups and institutions to press the regime to put an end to its “indifference and irresponsible attitude” toward Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The COVID-19 disease, caused by a new coronavirus, jumped from wildlife to people in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and is currently affecting 199 countries and territories across the globe. It has so far affected more than 680,690 people and killed over 31,900.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian foreign ministry called on the Israeli regime to immediately release more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails amidst rising cases of coronavirus infection.

The ministry said the Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) is not providing proper health protection to Palestinian prisoners, indicating that Israeli authorities have no intention to ease the apartheid and make sure that Palestinians are able to face the epidemic under better conditions.

Tel Aviv, the ministry, must “take full and direct responsibility for the life and health of the prisoners.”