A teenager from the West Bank, who was held in an Israeli prison for six months, died without being charged, after he had collapsed under unclear circumstances and the first Palestinian under the age of 18, who died in Israeli detention, said officials.
The 17 -year -old Walid Ahmad was a healthy high school before his arrest in September because he supposedly thrown stones on soldiers, his family said. In Israeli detention centers, right -wing groups have documented a widespread abuse in which thousands of Palestinians who were collected together by the Hamas on October 7, 2023, which lit up the war in the Gaza Strip.
The prison authorities refuse systematic abuse and say that they are investigating allegations of misconduct by the prison staff. However, the Israeli Ministry, which monitors the prisons, recognizes the conditions in adhesive institutions that have been reduced to the minimum level under Israeli law.
Israel’s prison service did not answer questions about the cause of death. Only that a 17-year-old died from the West Bank in the Megiddo prison, a facility that was previously accused of examining all deaths in custody.
Khalid Ahmad, Walid’s father, said his son was a lively teenager who liked to play football before being taken out of his house in the occupied West Bank during a preload.
Six months later, after several short court appearances, in which no negotiation date was set, Walid collapsed in a prison on March 23 and died as soon as the Palestinian officers listed from other prisoners.
The family believes that Walid amöbische Ruhr can be fatal from the poor conditions in prison, an infection, diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness – if it remains untreated.
The Palestinian authority from Western supports that Walid is the first Palestinian under the age of 18, who dies in Israeli prison and the 63rd Palestinians from the western bank or Gaza since the beginning of the war.
The Palestinian prison law groups say that this is about a fifth of the approximately 300 Palestinians, who have died in Israeli custody since the Midose War of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three areas for their future state.
Palestinian authority says that Israel has the corpses of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli prisons, including 61, which have died since the beginning of the war.
The conditions in Israeli prisons have deteriorated since the beginning of the war, said former prisoners of the Associated Press. They described blows, serious overcrowding, inadequate medical care, outbreaks of scabies and poor hygiene.
The National Security Ministry of Israel, which monitors the prison service and led by the ultra-nationalist cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has praised to reduce the conditions of Palestinian prisoners “to the statutory minimum”. Politics aim to deter attacks.
“Don’t worry about me,” recalls the father that he said and said
Israel has summarized thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and in West Bank and said it suspects it from militance. Many have been held in an administrative custody for months without charges or negotiations that justifies Israel as a necessary security measure. Others are arrested for suspicion of aggression against soldiers, but have continuously delayed their exams because the military and Israel security services collect evidence.
Walid sat through at least four court appearances compared to the video conference, his father said. Each session lasted about three minutes and another hearing was planned for April 21, said Walid’s father.
Dr. Khaled al Serr was released by Israeli forces on September 29 after spending more than six months in Israeli prisons. The 32-year-old surgeon, who works in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza, said that he was interrogated, humiliated and beaten, only to be released without charges last week.
In a February meeting, four months after Walid was arrested, his father noticed that his son seemed to be in bad health.
“His body was generally weakened due to malnutrition in prisons,” said Ahmad. He said Walid told him that he got scabies – an infectious rash caused by mites that caused intensive itching but had been healed.
“Don’t worry about me,” his father recalls him.
Four days after Khalid Ahmad had visited his son’s friend, a former football teammate who had held Walid in the same prison, the family received the news of Walid’s death.
“We felt just like all parents of the prisoners and all families and mothers of the prisoners,” said Khalid Ahmad. “We can only say: ‘In fact, we belong to Allah and in fact we will return to him.'”
“Hardgest prison for minors”
Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said that the Israeli authorities denied his inquiries to visit his clients in prison. But he says that three prisoners who held besides Walid told him that he was under range and said that it was widespread among the young Palestinians who were kept in the facility.
He said they suspected that the disease spread due to dirty water as well as cheese and yogurt, brought the prison guards in the morning and who put outside all day long, while prisoners catch Ramadan for the Muslim holy month.
Megiddo in northern Israel is “the hardest prison for minors,” said Al-Jabrini. He told him it was told that rooms that were designed for six prisoners often kept 16, some of them sleep on the floor. Many complained about scabies and eczema.
Thaer Shriteh, spokesman for the prisoner commission of the Palestinian authority, said that Walid had collapsed and hit his head onto a metal rod and lost consciousness. “The prison administration did not respond to the inquiries from the prisoners for urgent care to save his life,” he said, quoting witnesses who spoke to the Commission.
The lawyer and the Palestinian official both said that an autopsy was necessary to determine the cause of death. Israel has agreed to carry out one, but a date was not set.
