An adolescent from the West Financial institution who was held in an Israeli jail for six months with out being charged died after collapsing in unclear circumstances, turning into the primary Palestinian below 18 to die in Israeli detention, officers mentioned.
Walid Ahmad, 17, was a wholesome excessive schooler earlier than his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at troopers, his household mentioned. Rights teams have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention amenities holding hundreds of Palestinians who had been rounded up after the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the warfare within the Gaza Strip.
Jail authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they examine accusations of wrongdoing by jail employees. However the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges situations inside detention amenities have been lowered to the minimal degree allowed below Israeli regulation.
Israel’s jail service didn’t reply to questions on the reason for demise. It mentioned solely {that a} 17-year-old from the West Financial institution had died in Megiddo Jail, a facility that is beforehand been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, “along with his medical situation being saved confidential.” It mentioned it investigates all deaths in detention.
Khalid Ahmad, Walid’s father, mentioned his son was a energetic teen who loved taking part in soccer earlier than he was taken from his dwelling within the occupied West Financial institution throughout a predawn arrest raid.
Six months later, after a number of transient court docket appearances, throughout which no trial date was set, Walid collapsed on March 23 in a jail yard and struck his head, dying quickly after, Palestinians officers mentioned, citing eyewitness accounts from different prisoners.
The household believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor situations within the jail, an an infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness — and will be deadly if left untreated.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority says Walid is the primary Palestinian below 18 to die in Israeli detention — and the 63rd Palestinian from the West Financial institution or Gaza because the begin of the warfare.
Palestinian prisoner rights teams say that’s about one-fifth of the roughly 300 Palestinians who’ve died in Israeli custody because the 1967 Mideast warfare, when Israel captured the West Financial institution, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians need all three territories for his or her future state.
The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the our bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, together with 61 who died because the starting of the warfare.
Circumstances in Israeli prisons have worsened because the begin of the warfare, former detainees advised The Related Press. They described beatings, extreme overcrowding, inadequate medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary situations.
Israel’s Nationwide Safety Ministry, which oversees the jail service and is run by ultra-nationalist cupboard minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has boasted of decreasing the situations of Palestinian detainees “to the minimal required by regulation.” It says the coverage is geared toward deterring assaults.
‘Don’t fret about me,’ father remembers him saying
Israel has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and the West Financial institution, saying it suspects them of militancy. Many have been held for months with out cost or trial in what is called administrative detention, which Israel justifies as a needed safety measure. Others are arrested on suspicion of aggression towards troopers however have their trials constantly delayed, because the army and Israel’s safety providers collect proof.
Walid sat by means of at the least 4 court docket appearances over video convention, his father mentioned. Every session lasted about three minutes, and one other listening to was scheduled for April 21, Walid’s father mentioned.
Dr. Khaled Al Serr was launched by Israeli forces on Sept. 29 after spending greater than six months in Israeli prisons. The 32-year-old surgeon, who works at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza, mentioned he was interrogated, humiliated and crushed solely to be instantly launched final week with none costs.
In a February session, 4 months after Walid was detained, his father observed his son gave the impression to be unwell.
“His physique was weakened as a consequence of malnutrition within the prisons generally,” Ahmad mentioned. He mentioned Walid advised him he had gotten scabies — a contagious pores and skin rash attributable to mites that causes intense itching — however had been cured.
“Don’t fret about me,” his father remembers him saying.
4 days after Khalid Ahmad visited his son’s pal, a former soccer teammate who had been held with Walid in the identical jail, the household acquired the information of Walid’s demise.
“We felt the identical method as all of the mother and father of the prisoners and all of the households and moms of the prisoners,” mentioned Khalid Ahmad. “We will solely say, ‘Certainly, we belong to Allah, and certainly to him we will return.'”
‘Harshest jail for minors’
Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, mentioned Israeli authorities denied his requests to go to his shopper in jail. However he says three prisoners held alongside Walid advised him he was affected by dysentery, saying it was widespread amongst younger Palestinians held on the facility.
He mentioned they suspected the illness was spreading due to soiled water, in addition to cheese and yogurt that jail guards introduced within the morning and that sat out all day whereas detainees had been fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Megiddo, in northern Israel, “is the harshest jail for minors,” al-Jabrini mentioned. He mentioned he was advised that rooms designed for six prisoners usually held 16, with some sleeping on the ground. Many complained of scabies and eczema.
Thaer Shriteh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s detainee fee, mentioned Walid collapsed and hit his head on a steel rod, shedding consciousness. “The jail administration didn’t reply to the prisoners’ requests for pressing care to save lots of his life,” he mentioned, citing witnesses who spoke to the fee.
The lawyer and the Palestinian official each mentioned an post-mortem is required to find out the reason for demise. Israel has agreed to carry out one however a date has not been set.
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