JENIN (Ma’an) — Twenty-five members of a single family were taken to hospital in the northern West Bank on Friday after a banned pesticide poisoned their food.

The family prepared the food using herbs from their garden which they sprayed with the chemicals a week earlier, one of the relatives Basim Abbadi told Ma’an.

They suffered colic, fatigue and cramping an hour later, and were taken from Yabaad village to Jenin hospital, he said. His brother and mother were later taken to the intensive care unit of Al-Razi Hospital due to severe illness, Abbadi added.

Director of Jenin’s public hospital Nadir Irsheid said the pesticide, used by farmers to control plant lice, is banned for agricultural use in the Palestinian territory.

He contacted An-Najah University’s Poison Control and Chemical/Biological Analysis Center as well as Israel’s National Poison Information Center in Haifa to determine the appropriate antibiotic, he added.

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