Palestinian human rights sources confirmed the death of a detainee in Israel's Megiddo Prison on Monday evening, bringing the total number of Palestinian detainees who have died in custody to seven since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club and the Commission of Detainees' Affairs, in a joint statement released on Monday, accused the Israeli prison administration of carrying out a new extrajudicial killing against the prisoner Abdul Rahman Basim al-Bahsh, 23 years old, from Nablus in Megiddo Prison. Al-Bahsh, who had been detained since May 31, 2022, was serving a 35-month sentence.
The statement added that Abdul Rahman al-Bahsh thereby becomes the seventh martyr in occupation prisons since October 7, 2023.
It was emphasized in the statement that Megiddo Prison "has been one of the prisons where heinous crimes and systematic torture against detainees have taken place, following October 7th, when three detainees ascended before Abdul Rahman al-Bahsh."
An Israeli Prison Service spokesman, in a statement, reported the death of a security prisoner from Megiddo Prison, noting that "he was serving a prison sentence on charges of shooting, contacting a hostile organization, and violations of carrying an illegal weapon."
Hamas Condemns
On his part, Zaher Jabareen, an official in charge of the Martyrs and Prisoners' Office at the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, condemned the killing of a seventh detainee by the occupation forces since the start of the assault on Gaza.
Zaher, in a press statement made Monday evening, stated that the occupation authorities committed a new assassination crime against the detainees with the martyrdom of the detainee al-Bahsh. He pointed out that this crime comes amidst news of field executions, brutal torture, and inhumane conditions faced by detainees in occupation prisons.
Since the war began, the Israeli military has carried out a widespread arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank, including former leaders and officials of Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs, the number arrested by Israel since the outbreak of the war has exceeded 4,910 individuals, a figure that includes those arrested from their homes and through military checkpoints.
