Palestinians today held a sit-in in the West Bank city of al-Bireh demanding the release of a 60-year-old health official held by Israel.

Palestinians organized a sit-in in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) premises in the city in protest of the ongoing detention by Israeli occupation authorities of the General Manager of the Health Work Committees (HWC), Shatha Odeh.

Odeh was detained in a predawn Israeli military raid in the Ramallah city neighborhood of Ein Misbah on Wednesday, July 7. Her vehicle was seized during the raid.
Odeh’s daughter, Sireen Abu Fanouneh, who participated in the sit-in, said that her mother suffers from health problems and is denied medication, clothes, and a lawyer’s visit while in detention.

Odeh is transferred from Hasharon Prison to the Israeli notorious detention facility of Ofer, west of Ramallah, for interrogation on a daily basis, which further exacerbates her health condition, Abu Fanouneh added, while noting that her mother is detained for her role in HWC, one of the most important Palestinian non-profit health care providers to the most vulnerable communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank.