Admin I Monday, January 06, 2025
TEL AVIV, Israel – At least five Palestinian prisoners have died of torture in various prisons in Israel.
According to the Prisoners & Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestine Prisoners Club, all five died under torture in 24 hours.
The five affected prisoners are as follows:
Ashraf Mohammed Fakhri Abdul Abu Warda (51 years old): Detained on 20/11/2023 while fleeing from Jabalia to southern Gaza. A father of four, he had no prior health issues before his arrest. Held in Naqab Prison until 27/12/2024, he was later transferred to Soroka Hospital, where his martyrdom was announced.
Mohammed Rashid Akka (44 years old): Arrested on 15/11/2023 while fleeing northern Gaza with his family. A father of ten, he had no prior health issues but ascended in Naqab prison.
Samir Mahmoud Al-Kahlout (52 years old): Arrested on 25/10/2024 from Kamal Adwan Hospital after undergoing liver and kidney surgeries. Despite needing urgent care, soldiers forcibly arrested him despite doctors’ objections. He ascended on 3/11/2024, one week after his arrest, leaving behind three children.
Zuhair Omar Al-Sharif (58 years old): Detained on 7/10/2023 while working in occupied territories in 1948. A father of six, he had no health issues but ascended on 18/10/2023 in Ramla Prison. The army attempted to obscure his fate by issuing contradictory statements, including claims of his release from Ofer Prison, revealing a pattern of deceit.
Mohammed Anwar Labad (57 years old): Arrested on 18/11/2024 while fleeing northern Gaza with his family. A father of eight, he suffered from liver fibrosis and diabetes and ascended on 27/11/2024.
The Commission and the Club emphasized that the rising number of detainee martyrs is a humanitarian catastrophe which represents a clear evidence of the occupation’s systematic and public policy of executing and eliminating prisoners and another facet of the genocide. Time is critical as the unprecedented scale and intensity of torture will inevitably lead to more martyrs.
They said that the number of prisoner martyrs since the start of the genocide war has risen to 54, whose identities are known. This marks the highest number of detainee deaths during a single period, raising the total number of known detainee martyrs since 1967 to 291.
The escalation in deaths, they believe will worsen as thousands of detainees endure systematic crimes, including torture, starvation, physical and sexual assaults, and medical neglect. These policies aim to induce severe illnesses and infectious diseases, alongside extreme deprivation.
The number of prisoners acknowledged by the occupation’s prison administration as of early December exceeds 10,300, while hundreds of Gaza detainees remain forcibly dispersed in military camps.
