• Nasser Abu Hmaid’s family and prisoner groups believe he is facing “his last days”.
• Prisoners groups say he was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2021 after Israeli authorities delayed medical treatment.
• He has been sentenced to life in prison since 2002.

Calls are mounting for Israel to free a Palestinian prisoner suffering from cancer who is in serious condition and is expected to die.

Nasser Abu Hmaid’s family and prisoner advocacy groups alleged late last week that the 49-year-old was in “his final days,” citing an Israeli medical assessment from the Assaf Harofeh hospital outside Tel Aviv that advised his immediate release.

On Thursday, Israeli prison authorities took Abu Hmaid from the hospital to the Ramla prison clinic, about seven kilometres away, when the hospital said there was nothing else it could do.

Protests for the prisoner’s release have taken place in a number of places throughout the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip, as well as in front of Ramla jail.

“Everyone who can assist him be released in his final days is accountable,” his brother, Naji Abu Hmaid, told Al Jazeera Arabic on Friday, adding that the family was requesting his quick release so he could die by their side.

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“How can I console my dying brother from behind the glass while seeing my mother deprived of embracing him for the last time?”

Abu Hmaid is from Ramallah’s al-Amari refugee camp. He has been imprisoned since 2002 and condemned to life in jail after an Israeli court judged him guilty of involvement in attacks during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. According to prisoner groups, Abu Hmaid was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2021 after Israeli officials delayed providing medical testing and treatment.

According to Amany Sarahneh, spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, he was “suffering from discomfort for a long amount of time before they decided to undertake medical tests on him.”

“By August, the chest pain had grown very severe, and they sent him for tests, where they discovered the malignancy.” “It’s evident that the disease was found at a late stage,” she noted, noting how swiftly it spread in just one year.

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