Palestinian paramedic from Gaza dies in Israeli custody

A Palestinian paramedic from Gaza has died in Israeli detention, amid mounting allegations of torture, starvation and medical neglect behind prison walls.

Hatem Ismail Rayyan, 59, was pronounced dead at Negev prison, the Palestinian Authority's Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society announced on Thursday.

The medic and his wounded son, Muath, were arrested on 27 December 2024 at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, after Israeli forces stormed the facility.

Muath remains in Israeli detention, according to local reports.

Medical staff, patients and relatives were taken from the hospital at gunpoint, forced to strip to their underwear and transferred to an unknown location. These included senior health official Hussam Abu Safiya, who remains in Israeli detention.

The health ministry’s director general, Muneer al-Boursh, said Rayyan was “not a fighter on a battlefield” but a medic whose aim was to rescue others.

"On December 27, 2024, he was detained from inside the hospital - a place meant to save lives - and transformed from a lifesaver into a prisoner number," Boursh wrote on X. 

Boursh said the death of Rayyan came at a time when Israeli detention facilities have become "slow-moving graves" and "another arena of suffering".

"Hatem Rayan has passed, but his story remains a testimony: those who once dressed wounds have themselves become the open wound in the conscience of humanity."

'Sites of torture'

According to an annual report published by the Palestinian Prisoners' Society and rights group Addameer, Palestinian prisoners have died under "severely inhumane systematic policies".

"These facilities have turned into sites of torture, designed to break prisoners physically and mentally through prolonged, deliberate suffering, and slow-execution policies," the report said. 

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The past two years have seen an "unprecedented level of brutality and systematic execution of prisoners", the rights groups said, adding that the death toll during this period is equivalent to the number of prisoners killed in Israeli custody over the previous 24 years.

"These facts prove that what is happening to Palestinian prisoners is systematic genocide," the report said. 

Detainees are subject to torture, starvation, medical negligence, sexual violence, mass isolation and deprivation of all basic human needs.

The report highlighted that Palestinian journalists and medical personnel are among the most heavily targeted groups. 

So far, more than 100 Palestinian prisoners have been killed since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Of these, the identities of 86 have been revealed. 

The exact Palestinian death toll in Israeli prisons remains unknown. 

As of December 2025, more than 9,300 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons, though the real figure is probably higher, as Israel withholds information on hundreds seized from Gaza. About half of them (4,750), are held without trial or charge.