On Friday, 10 February 2022, Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Badr Abdullah Abu Ali, a 48-year-old from Yatta (Hebron), was pronounced dead at Soroka Hospital (Beersheba) following the deterioration of his health while in detention at Al-Naqab Prison.

According to Al Mezan, Abu Ali was detained in 2012 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He had serious health problems, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and chronic heart problems. On 31 January 2023, he was rushed to Soroka Hospital for cardiac catheterization surgery and was returned to prison the same day without receiving post-operative care. At 10 a.m. on Thursday, 9 February 2023, he lost consciousness, but the prison administration was slow to render first aid and admit him to the hospital. On Friday, 10 February 2023, the Israeli Prison Service pronounced him dead at Soroka Hospital.

According to a joint report by detainees’ organizations,^[1] in 2022, Israeli forces arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). At the end of 2022, there were around 4,700 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, including 29 women and 150 children. Among them, 850 were administrative detainees, including seven children and two women. In addition, 330 detainees have spent more than 20 years in prison, and 552 detainees have been sentenced to life in prison. There were over 600 detainees suffering from various diseases, including 24 cancer patients. According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the death of the prisoner Ahmed Abu Ali brings the total number of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli prisons since 1967 to 235—with Israeli authorities still withholding the bodies of 11 of them.

Al Mezan expresses its grave concern about the conditions and practices used against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, particularly Israel’s deliberate policy of medical negligence, which constitutes a grave violation of Palestinian detainees’ rights guaranteed under international human rights and humanitarian law. Al Mezan holds Israel responsible for Abu Ali’s death and calls for an international investigation to establish the circumstances of his death and as a prelude to prosecuting those responsible.

[1] The organizations are the Commission of Detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club, Addameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.