Another Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody on Sunday, raising the death toll to 66 since October 2023, according to prisoners’ rights groups.
Muhi al-Din Fahmi Saeed Najm, 60, from the West Bank city of Jenin, passed away at Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel, as confirmed by the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society in a joint statement.
Najm had been imprisoned since August 2023 without charge or trial under Israel’s controversial policy of administrative detention. He had previously spent nearly 19 years in Israeli prisons across multiple incarcerations, the statement said.
A father of six, Najm reportedly suffered from chronic health problems and was denied proper medical care during his detention, the statement added.
A visit by legal representatives on March 10 at the Negev Prison revealed a serious deterioration in his health, the rights groups said.
They described his death as a “deliberate medical crime,” noting that his continued detention without charge and deprivation of medical treatment amounted to a “compound crime.”
Najm is one of hundreds of ill Palestinian prisoners, many of whom face a systematic “slow death” due to medical negligence in Israeli prisons.
The Negev Prison, where Najm had been held, has been cited for particularly severe conditions, including a widespread outbreak of scabies.
The rights groups accuse Israeli prison authorities of using poor health conditions as a deliberate method to harm inmates.
According to the statement, at least 40 of the 66 known prisoners who have died in custody since October 2023 were from the Gaza Strip, though the rights groups said the actual number may be higher due to ongoing enforced disappearances.
They called on the international community to take immediate and effective action to hold “Israeli officials accountable for war crimes” and to impose international sanctions aimed at isolating Israel diplomatically.
Currently, Israel holds approximately 9,900 Palestinians in its prisons, including around 400 children and 29 women, based on official Palestinian data. These numbers exclude thousands of Palestinians subjected to enforced disappearance, particularly from Gaza.
More than 52,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 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.
