Palestinian teenager dies in Israeli detention

By Qais Abu Samra and Ahmed Asmar

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - A 17-year-old Palestinian detainee died in Israeli detention, bringing the death toll of prisoners in Israeli jails to 63 since October 2023, prisoners’ affairs groups said Monday.

In a joint statement, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said the Civil Affairs Authority, the Palestinian Authority’s official liaison office with Israeli authorities, notified them of the death of prisoner Walid Ahmad in Israel’s Megiddo Prison. Detained as a minor, Ahmad hailed from Silwad, a town east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

The statement said Ahmad was apprehended by Israeli forces on Sept. 30, 2024, and that the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.

Ahmad’s death brings the toll of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since October 2023 up to 63, 40 of which were detainees from Gaza.

Palestinian authorities estimate that at least 300 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported in October 2024 that systematic torture and abuse against Palestinian detainees remain widespread.

The report cited leaked documents from Megiddo Prison that detailed numerous instances of horrific attacks, including the use of dogs to humiliate detainees.