56th Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody since start of Gaza war

Ahram Online , Sunday 19 Jan 2025

The Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Authority of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club of the death of Muhammad Yassin Khalil Jaber, 22, from the Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem on Saturday.

Palestinian boy
Mohammed Yassin Khalil Jaber

 

Details surrounding Jaber’s death remain unclear.

The Authority and the Club reported that Jaber had been held as an administrative detainee in the Negev Desert Prison since 12 November 2023.

They stated that Jaber had previously sustained a severe abdominal injury a year and a half before his arrest, which required the removal of part of his intestines. At the time of his detention, he needed intensive medical care.

According to the two organizations, Jaber’s death brings the number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees killed in Israeli custody since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza to 56. This figure includes only those whose identities have been confirmed.

They described this period as the bloodiest in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement since 1967, with the total number of identified prisoner deaths since 1967 now reaching 293. They also noted that dozens of detainees from Gaza are subject to enforced disappearance.

Jaber is the sixth administrative detainee to die in Israeli prisons since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023.

The Authority and the Club condemned Jaber’s death, calling it a “new crime” by the Israeli system, which they said had reached unprecedented levels of brutality during the war on Gaza.

They also described the treatment of prisoners and detainees as a humanitarian catastrophe, warning Israel is using detention as a means to carry out “executions, assassinations, and liquidations.”

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