OCCUPIED WEST BANK – A freed Palestinian detainee has died a week after his release from Israeli prisons, as a result of medical negligence, as more than 90 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody over the past two years amid reports of torture and inadequate medical care.
Khaled al-Saifi, 67, has died as a result of medical negligence a week after his release from Israeli jail, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
The monitors said in a statement that al-Saifi, a resident of the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank’s Bethlehem area, had been arrested twice since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
He spent at least four months in prison in Ramla, where his health deteriorated due to torture, abuse and starvation.
The groups said he was released and transferred to the Istishari Hospital in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah city in critical condition and died on Monday.
More than 9,350 Palestinians, including children, women, and journalists, are being held in Israeli jails. According to the latest update issued on January 19 by Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups, from October 2023, when Israel launched its assault on Gaza, to this date, the number of Palestinian hostages doubled.
According to the detainees commission and PPS, about 87 known detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Among them are at least 51 detainees from Gaza and a child, the highest number in history.
Since 1967, a total of 324 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli occupation prisons. The groups said the identities of many martyrs among Gaza’s detainees remain undisclosed, as the Israeli occupation continues to conceal them, making this the “bloodiest stage in the history of the prisoner movement.”
According to a newly-released report by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI), based on data obtained from the Israeli army and Israel Prison Service (IPS), 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons and military detention centers since October 2023, in many cases seemingly as a direct result of torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation by soldiers and prison officers.
Of those detained from Gaza, who make up the majority, less than one-third were classified by the Israeli army itself as militants, meaning Israel was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians in custody. — QNN
