Death of a Palestinian detainee in an Israeli hospital

The Palestinian Authority for Prisoners and Released Prisoners and the Prisoners' Club announced on Sunday the death of a Palestinian detainee in an Israeli hospital after his health deteriorated.

The Authority and the Club stated in a joint statement that the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority informed them of the "martyrdom of detainee Mahmoud Talal Abdullah (49 years old) from Jenin camp, in the Israeli Asaf Harofeh Hospital."

The statement noted that "the occupation arrested Abdullah on February 1 of this year, and after his arrest, his health condition deteriorated severely, later revealing that he was suffering from cancer."

The Authority and the Club explained that despite medical examinations confirming that the detainee was in an advanced stage of cancer, Israel refused to release him and kept him detained until he died one day after being transferred to "Asaf Harofeh" Hospital in central Israel.

They pointed out that "detainee Abdullah is a former prisoner who was arrested in 2002 and spent two years in the occupation's prisons at that time. Before his last arrest, he was suffering from health issues and undergoing treatment, but his re-arrest deprived him of completing his medical treatment."

The Authority and the Club affirmed that this constitutes "a crime added to the series of compounded crimes perpetrated by the occupation system as part of its policy of killing prisoners and detainees, within the framework of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people."

They clarified that "with the martyrdom of detainee Mahmoud Abdullah, the number of martyrs of the prisoner movement since the beginning of the genocide has risen to 79 martyrs, and these are only the ones whose identities have been identified, amid the ongoing crime of enforced disappearance affecting dozens of detainees."

The statement added that "this phase of the history of the prisoner movement is witnessing the highest rates of bloodshed since 1967, as the number of martyrs of the prisoner movement whose identities have been known to date is 316 martyrs, according to documented data from prisoner institutions."

The Authority and the Club held "the occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of detainee Mahmoud Abdullah, and renewed their call to the international human rights system to take effective measures to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable for the war crimes committed against prisoners and the Palestinian people."

Since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, assaults by the army and settlers in the West Bank have escalated, resulting in at least 1,055 Palestinian deaths and around 10,000 injuries, in addition to the arrest of more than 20,000, including 1,600 children.

Since October 8, 2023, Israel, with American support, has committed genocide in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 68,159 Palestinians and injuring 170,203 others, as well as the destruction of 90 percent of the infrastructure in the sector.