Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli prison after being denied care

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has confirmed the death of 63-year-old Mohammed Hussein Ghawadra from Burqin, near Jenin, who died today while being held by Israeli authorities.

Ghawadra, detained since August 2024, was denied essential medical treatment despite suffering from chronic illnesses, the group said. His death, it added, exposes Israel’s “systematic crimes” against Palestinian detainees, including routine medical neglect and physical and psychological abuse.

According to the organisation, Ghawadra’s death raises the number of Palestinian prisoners killed in Israeli custody since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza to 81. Since 1967, at least 318 Palestinians have died behind Israeli bars.

Ghawadra was the father of administrative detainee Sami Ghawadra, who remains imprisoned without charge or trial, and of Shadi Ghawadra, who was released and exiled to Egypt earlier this year as part of a prisoner exchange with Hamas.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of turning its prisons into “slow-death chambers,” where Palestinian detainees are subjected to brutal interrogation, starvation, and denial of medical care.