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Teenage Palestinian detainee from West Bank dies in Israeli prison: Rights groups

Monday, 24 March 2025 6:47 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 24 March 2025 6:47 AM ]

A Palestinian teenager from the occupied West Bank has died while in custody at an Israeli prison, according to two Palestinian organizations dealing with prisoner affairs.

The Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) announced in a joint statement on Sunday that 17-year-old detainee Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, a resident of Silwad town, had passed away at Megiddo Prison.

The two organizations noted that Ahmad’s death adds to the growing list of Palestinians who have lost their lives due to systematic abuses within Israeli detention facilities.

These violations have intensified since the onset of the Gaza genocidal war on October 7, 2023, and include torture, starvation, denial of medical treatment, threats, and various sexual violations.

The statement noted that Ahmad was abducted on September 30 last year, and had remained in detention since then. The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.

The Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society highlighted that Ahmad is the 63rd detainee to have died since the start of the ongoing Gaza onslaught.

More than dozen Palestinian mothers being kept behind bars in Israeli prisons

Three Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups say the occupying Israeli regime is holding 14 Palestinian women behind bars in its detention centers.

The organizations condemned Ahmad’s death as a new crime in the record of Israeli detention practices, which they described as reaching unprecedented levels of brutality since the escalation.

They warned that the rising death toll among detainees is likely to soar as thousands remain in Israeli prisons, and are subjected to systematic abuses, including torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual violence, and conditions deliberately designed to cause severe illnesses.

These practices are compounded by unprecedented levels of deprivation and confiscation of basic rights.

The statement held Israeli authorities fully accountable for Ahmad’s death and reiterated calls for the international human rights community to take decisive action and urged the implementation of measures to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes, impose sanctions to isolate Israel internationally, and restore the fundamental role of human rights organizations.

They finally called for an end to the exceptional impunity granted to Israel by arrogant powers, which has shielded the occupying regime from accountability.

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