Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady TD has condemned Israeli authorities following the death of Palestinian prisoner Kamal Abu Waer, who died in Israeli custody.

Teachta Brady said: “Kamal Abu Waer found himself in an Israeli detention centre because he took up arms against Israeli oppression.

“He died in an Israeli detention centre because the Israeli authorities refused to grant him proper medical treatment for throat cancer. 

“There are currently 5,400 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, 200 of whom are children.

“Kamal Abu Waer is one of 226 Palestinian prisoners who have died in detention in Israeli gaols since 1967. He was only 46 years of age and had been imprisoned for 17 years.

“In a further macabre and twisted attempt to punish his family, Israeli authorities withheld his remains from them. This attempt at collective punishment merely piles on more suffering for Abu Waer’s family.

“Israel holds the remains of a further eight Palestinians ‘hostage’, in what they term the ‘cemetery of numbers’. The treatment of these men and their families represents a gross violation of the Geneva Convention protocols on the treatment of the dead in conflicts. 

“I absolutely condemn this heartless approach by the Israeli authorities, particularly when such events can occur against a backdrop of the demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure.”