Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs committee on Sunday reported that Hussein Muhammad Al-Masalmeh, 37, from Bethlehem, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison since 2002, was diagnosed with leukemia.

The committee’s lawyer, Karim Ajwa, stated in a statement that Al-Masalmeh was suffering from abdominal pain during the previous period and he was transferred to Soroka Medical Center about two weeks ago where it was found that he had leukemia.

Ajwa added that the prisoner Al-Msallama was given the first session of chemotherapy a few days ago.

It is noteworthy that about 700 prisoners in the Israeli prisons are patients, 300 prisoners of them suffer from chronic diseases, including more than 12 prisoners suffer from cancers and tumors.