Palestinian detained since May 2022 dies in Israeli custody

RAMALLAH, Palestine

A Palestinian detained by Israel without being changed in any case since May 2022 died on Thursday as a result of medical negligence, Palestinian rights groups said.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society in a joint statement confirmed that Mohammed Ahmad Al-Sabar, 21, died in an Israeli prison.

However, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Al-Sabar died owing to medical negligence on the part of Israeli prison authorities.

He "died in the Hadassah Medical Center in occupied Jerusalem after his transfer from the Ofer prison," the news agency said.

Al-Sabar from Al-Dhahiriya town near Hebron city in the southern West Bank was held in an Israeli jail under an "administrative detention order" with no charge or trial since May 2022.

His administrative detention was extended last November for another four months, the rights groups said.

Administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to detain a Palestinian prisoner indefinitely without charge or trial.

Wafa news agency reported that Al-Sabar is the eighth Palestinian to die in Israeli prisons since the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7.

So far, no comments have been made by Israeli authorities about his death.

According to their annual reports, both rights groups estimated that there were 8,800 Palestinian detainees, including 80 women, in Israeli jails by the end of Dec. 2023.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar