Ramallah: The family of an injured Palestinian construction worker who was left to die on a sidewalk in Israel after a workplace accident will sue those responsible once the circumstances of his death become clear, sources said.

“We have been receiving different information about my father’s death. We have been told by some that my father was electrocuted at his worksite and his Israeli employer [with the help of other labourers] threw my father onto the sidewalk. The hospital initially told us that it was a myocardial infarction,” Hassan, the youngest son of the victim Ehsan Hassan Surour, told Gulf News.

“Once the picture is clear, we will lodge a complaint against those who are responsible for my father’s death,” Hassan said.

Israeli daily the Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Surour was left to die on a sidewalk south of Tel Aviv after being apparently abandoned by his Israeli employer who made no attempt to assist him. The victim’s body was found by a passerby who reported the case to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv where he was officially pronounced dead.

According to Hassan, hospital officials reviewed the victim’s mobile phone and reported his death to his relatives in Israel, who in turn informed his family in Askar refugee camp, near Nablus in the West Bank.

“The Israeli hospital arranged for all the necessary co-ordination and referred my father’s body to his home camp where he was laid to rest later on Tuesday,” Hassan said.

Autopsy request rejected

“I requested for my father to have an autopsy to know the exact reason for the death, but the hospital rejected it,” he said. “We will get the hospital reports in three to four days. Those reports might give us a clearer picture of how my father died,” he said.

Hassan said that his father entered Israel on an Eid Al Fitr vacation permit.

“My father had worked in Israel for more than 20 years on a work permit,” he said. Hassan added that his father’s work permit was terminated eight years ago when he suffered heart problems and underwent cardiac catheterisation.

Four years ago, Surour secured a commercial permit and returned to work in Israel. “On the day he died, he had called me and asked me to refer to the Commercial Chamber to check upon his new commercial permit,” he said.

On Wednesday, officials from the Israeli Labour Office will visit the victim’s family. Other visitors include a lawyer who has volunteered to represent the victim’s family and an eyewitness, Hussam Faraji, a Palestinian citizen in Israel.

Martyr status

The victim is survived by a wife, three sons and four daughters. Officials from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have asked the victim’s heirs to apply to the PNA to consider their father for martyrhood.

Haaretz interviewed eyewitnesses who confirmed that Surour, 57, was abandoned by his employer after he suffered a serious work injury.

Faraji claimed the Israeli ambulance arrived at the scene more than 25 minutes late.

Another eyewitness, Nicolas Cascallar Marquis, said the worker was still alive, but in serious condition, and he had tried to resuscitate him, but in vain.