The authorities are withholding treatment from a young illegal immigrant from Africa who has been suffering from severe pains while incarcerated in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) maintained in a recent court petition on the prisoner's behalf.

H. was arrested last summer after infiltrating into Israel from Egypt. He had no form of identification upon his arrest, but he told the security forces that he came from Guinea and that he was 17. He was then remanded to the care of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and incarcerated in Ma'asiyahu Prison in Ramle.

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Some time after his arrest, H. began complaining of acute pains in his groin. After several months, he was finally diagnosed as suffering from a hernia and has been scheduled to undergo surgery in September.

In its petition to the Tel Aviv Administrative Court, PHR asked the judges to order the IPS to set an earlier date for the operation, claiming that there is no reason why H. should suffer acute pain for months on end. The IPS replied that H. "is not an urgent case" and that his situation is not life-threatening.

Until the court rules on the petition, H. will continue to be forced to consume large amounts of painkillers. "They have him swallowing painkillers like Tic-Tacs rather than affording him the proper medical care," PHR legal adviser Yohana Lerman told Haaretz.

According to the medical human rights organization, in response to H.'s complaints, he was examined by a physician last September. On September 18, 2006, the surgeon diagnosed H. as suffering from a double hernia in his groin and determined that he required surgery. But the procedure was scheduled for exactly one year later - an unreasonably long period, according to PHR.

Moreover, the organization claimed, there is no concrete reason for the delay. In the petition, Lerman said that her organization contacted Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tzrifin, where the surgery was scheduled to take place, to ask whether it could be performed at an earlier date. According to PHR, the hospital replied that there was a very short waiting list, and that H. could be operated on the following week.

However, the IPS responded to this by saying that the procedure had been scheduled by the staff of Assaf Harofeh. "The operation is not an urgent case. The prisoner is receiving proper medical care," the IPS claimed.

In its petition, PHR also addressed the fact that H. is being held with other adults, despite telling authorities that he was underage. "He is kept in a cell with six other detainees. They are all 30, 40 or 50 years old, so he is pretty isolated socially," Lerman complained.