Salfit – Ma’an – Israeli prison officials have kept a Palestinian inmate in an isolation cell for more than four months despite his ill health and complaints from fellow prisoners, the man's parents said.

Thirty-two-year-old Mehraj Ibrahim from the Tulkarem Refugee Camp is serving his ninth year of a 15-year sentence in Israeli prison. He has been transfered from the Gelboa, Bafha, Negev, Maggido, Ashkelon and Beersheba prisons during his time in incarceration. His mother was permitted to see the man last week, and reported he was in serious condition.

Ibrahim's hands and legs were cuffed when his mother saw him, and he reported that he had been held in an isolation cell with no contact from other inmates for at lest four months. She said her son looked ill, was limping on his right leg, shook violently and had a racking cough. She appealed to local and international authorities to intervene in his case and see that he is treated fairly.

Ibrahim was detained on 29 April 2001 and is serving a 15-year term.

Meanwhile, the Center for Detainees Studies said on Friday that surgeons discovered the cause of 24-year-old detainee Salem Jamal Kassab's chronic pain, pus, and infections - a metal pin left behind during a prior operation. In a statement, the center said that after a review of the seemingly endless infections doctors finally found the pin. Kassab also suffers from an optical illness, the center said, calling on human rights groups to intervene in his case.