Ramallah: A Palestinian detainee at the Ramon Prison in southern Israel died due to deteriorating health, prisoners affairs groups said on Wednesday.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority, which liaises with Israeli authorities, along with the Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, in a joint statement, identified the detainee as Ahmed Khdeirat, 22.
The statement revealed that Khdeirat, from the town of ad-Dhahiriya in Hebron, southern West Bank, passed away at Israel's Soroka Medical Center. In August, concerns about Khdeirat's health were raised by the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, which warned of a 'serious deterioration' in his condition. He had been held under administrative detention since May 2024. The group highlighted Khdeirat's severe health issues, including chronic diabetes and a skin disease, scabies, which had drastically reduced his weight to 40 kilograms.
Administrative detention in Israel allows imprisonment without charge or trial for renewable periods up to six months, based on alleged security grounds. The process involves a 'secret file' presented by the Israeli intelligence service to the court, inaccessible to both the detainee and their lawyer. Khdeirat's case is part of a larger issue involving thousands of ill Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, where authorities are accused of implementing policies that endanger inmates' lives.
Resistance group Hamas mourned Khdeirat's death, noting it increased the death toll of Palestinian prisoners since October 2023 to 78. The group called for urgent international intervention to hold Israel accountable for its actions against detainees. A report released on Tuesday by prisoners' organizations, including the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the Detainees Commission, and Al-Dameer Foundation, indicated that 77 Palestinian prisoners had died since the onset of Israel's war on Gaza two years ago.
The report also detailed that among the deceased were 46 prisoners from the Gaza Strip, along with others executed in the field. It highlighted the arrest of more than 20,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the same period, with 1,600 children and approximately 595 women among them.
Tensions have escalated in the West Bank since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, resulting in more than 67,000 deaths. Official Palestinian figures report at least 1,049 Palestinians killed and around 10,300 injured in the West Bank since October 2023. Israel's longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as land in Syria and Lebanon, persists despite calls for withdrawal and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.