1 more Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli detention

ANKARA

Another Palestinian detainee from the West Bank city of Nablus died in Israeli detention amid accusations of Israeli ill-treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, prisoners’ affairs groups said on Thursday.

Detainee Mosab Audaily, 20, was serving a 13-month sentence in Israeli jails, where he was pronounced dead last night at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva in southern Israel, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

The statement noted that Audaily was detained on March 22, 2024, and was scheduled to be released after three days.

While the statement did not elaborate on how he died, it said Audaily died "as a result of the organized crimes that have been practiced by the Israeli occupation prisons in an unprecedented manner since the start of the ongoing genocide" in Gaza.

The Israeli authorities are yet to comment on Audaily's death.

According to Palestinian figures, at least 64 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli captivity since October 2023, including at least 40 from Gaza.

Palestinian authorities estimate that at least 301 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Over 9,500 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons. The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

Tension has been high in the occupied West Bank, where nearly 950 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 others injured since the Gaza war in October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.