A Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist who was shot after ramming his vehicle into security personnel is scheduled to undergo cosmetic surgery in an Israeli hospital later this year.
Azmi Nafa is serving a 20-year sentence over the Nov. 24, 2015, terrorist attack at the Tapuach Junction in Samaria, in which four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were lightly wounded.
IDF troops neutralized the terrorist on site, shooting him in the head before taking him into custody.
Nafa, who is incarcerated at the maximum-security Gilboa Prison in northern Israel, is now scheduled to undergo cosmetic surgery at Afula’s Emek Medical Center in December, according to Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) sources cited by Channel 14 on Thursday.
“The prisoner has been under medical observation since 2020 due to a gunshot wound to his head,” a spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service told the broadcaster. “In the period prior to the tenure of the acting [IPS] commissioner [Kobi Yaakobi], he received medical treatment, and he was scheduled for continued treatment until December 2024.
“This is a procedure that is not life-saving, and therefore, it is currently only a hospital recommendation, which will be examined later, according to Israel Prison Service policies,” added the spokesperson.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, security prisoners have been barred from receiving non-life-saving treatments. According to the Prison Service, the surgery that Nafa is scheduled to undergo later this year is “not cosmetic,” but not life-saving either.
During his nine-year detention, Nafa previously graduated with a degree in social work from the Al-Quds Open University. In addition, in 2019, his parents were honored by the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners Affairs Commission, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
In August 2023, an Arab terrorist convicted of kidnapping and killing an Israeli teenager petitioned a judge after the Israel Prison Service denied him the “right” to play video games.
Iham Kamamji, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member serving two life sentences for his role in the 2006 murder of 18-year-old Eliyahu Asheri, said the prison administration had previously allowed him to have a Sony PlayStation 2 in his cell.
Kamamji was one of the six Arab terrorists who in September 2021 broke out of Gilboa Prison. Following their recapture, Kamamji was moved to the isolation wing of Ashkelon’s Shikma Prison.
In the petition, the terrorist complained about alleged “discrimination and harassment” at the hands of the Prison Service in the wake of his attempted escape. “I do not commit crimes and respect the law and the administration,” Kamamji claimed.
