![Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmed. [PIC]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Walid-Khaled-Abdullah-Ahmed-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
A 17-year-old boy from the occupied West Bank town of Silwad has died in Israel’s Megiddo Prison, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ and Detainees’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. The joint statement said that Israeli officials confirmed Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmed’s death but did not provide details on the circumstances of his death, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported.
The boy was arrested on 30 September last year and remained in custody without charge or trial. His death adds to the growing list of Palestinians who have lost their lives due to systematic abuses within Israeli detention facilities.
At least 63 Palestinian prisoners are confirmed to have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, including 40 detainees from the Gaza Strip.
The organisations condemned Ahmed’s death as a new crime for the record of Israeli detention practices, which they described as reaching unprecedented levels of brutality since the Israeli genocide started in Gaza in October 2023. They warned that the rising death toll among detainees is likely to soar as thousands remain in Israeli prisons, and are subjected to systematic abuses, including torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual violence and conditions designed deliberately to cause or exacerbate severe illnesses.
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Both organisations said that they hold the Israeli authorities fully accountable for Ahmed’s death and reiterated calls for the international human rights community to take decisive action. They also urged the implementation of measures to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes, impose sanctions to isolate Israel internationally, and restore the fundamental role of human rights organisations.
They concluded by calling for an end to the exceptional impunity granted to Israel by the former colonial powers, which have shielded the occupying regime from accountability.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance Movement mourned Ahmed, saying that “the Israeli occupation continues its crimes” against Palestine’s “heroic prisoners” in its jails.
“The torture and abuse our prisoners are subjected to is a full-fledged war crime, violating all international and humanitarian conventions and embodying the extremist Israeli policy of executing prisoners,” said Hamas. It warned that these ongoing violations against Palestinian prisoners will not go unanswered. “Our people and our resistance remain committed to our brave prisoners.”