Palestinian prisoner from Gaza dies in Israeli custody

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Two Palestinian prisoner rights groups announced on Monday the death of a Gazan detainee, Musab Hani Haniyeh, in an Israeli prison on Jan. 5.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement that they had received confirmation from the Israeli military that Haniyeh had died in Israeli detention.

The statement further noted that Israel’s authorities do not only kill prisoners but also manipulate the disclosure of their fate, a practice that has occurred repeatedly.

The groups emphasized that the only official reports about prisoner fatalities come from the Israeli military, and often the bodies of the deceased are withheld, leaving no other evidence of their deaths.

Haniyeh, 35, originally from Khan Younis, Gaza, had been detained since March 3, 2024. According to his family, Haniyeh had no health issues prior to his arrest.

With Haniyeh’s death, the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since the start of the genocide on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 59, with at least 38 of them from Gaza, the statement added.

This marks the highest number of prisoner fatalities since 1967, bringing the total number of identified martyrdoms among Palestinian prisoners to 296, it said.

The statement condemned Haniyeh’s death as a new crime in Israel’s record of brutality, which has escalated since the start of the ongoing genocide against Palestinians.

The organizations warned of the increasing number of Palestinians among prisoners and the continued suffering of the thousands still held under harsh conditions in Israeli prisons. These conditions include torture, starvation, physical and psychological assaults, deliberate medical neglect, and exposure to diseases.

The statement held Israel fully responsible for Haniyeh’s death and called on international human rights bodies to take decisive action to hold Israeli leaders accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people.

According to previous reports from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli custody, not including the hundreds of Gaza detainees facing enforced disappearance.

A Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal took effect last month, halting Israel’s genocidal war, which has killed nearly 48,350 victims, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.