Hind Shraydeh is very worried about her husband. Ubai Aboudi, an American-Palestinian researcher and director of the Ramallah-based nongovernmental organization Bisan Center for Research and Development, was arrested by Israeli forces at his house in Jerusalem’s Kufr Aqab neighborhood on Nov. 13, 2019. Aboudi was initially held in administrative detention at the Ofer detention center, and Amnesty International and Nobel Prize scientists around the world circulated a petition calling for his release.

Shraydeh told Al-Monitor her husband had breathing problems before his imprisonment and expressed worry about the potential spread of the coronavirus in the overcrowded Israeli detention centers. “Ubai is held in unit 22 at the Ofer detention center near Beitunia, where eight people are kept in a small room within an unhealthy prison environment and where at least one coronavirus case has been [confirmed].”

Shraydeh said she is concerned about the dangers Palestinian prisoners face. “Two Israeli prison guards have the virus, and a Palestinian prisoner released from Ofer has also tested positive. Yet there is little being done to release vulnerable prisoners or even to keep prisoners in touch with their families.”

Nour al-Deen Sarsour, a Palestinian detainee, was released on March 31 from the same prison where Aboudi is being held. On the same day, Palestinian health officials tested him, and he tested positive for the virus. As a result, nine prisoners who interacted with Sarsour were placed in isolation cells to be quarantined without being tested. According to prisoners in Ofer, other prisoners who interacted with Nour, some who have high temperatures, have not been tested.