Israeli occupation authorities informed the family of Palestinian political prisoner Emad Rajeh Sarhan, 47, from Haifa, that he died on Sunday inside Gilboa Prison, reportedly following a heart attack the previous day, without providing any information on his medical condition or the circumstances leading to his death.
Sarhan had been imprisoned since 15 October 2001 and was serving a life sentence. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Commission for Detainees and Ex‑Detainees Affairs, he was subjected to prolonged, harsh interrogation and systematic torture during the early years of his imprisonment, causing long‑term health damage that continued to worsen over time. He was also repeatedly held in solitary confinement.
The two institutions said that years of imprisonment, torture, and deliberate medical neglect resulted in chronic illnesses affecting his heart, arteries, and veins, in addition to high blood pressure.
In recent years, Sarhan relied on a wheelchair due to the severe deterioration of his health, yet the Israeli prison administration continued to hold him in harsh and degrading conditions.
They added that Sarhan is one of the many victims of systematic medical neglect and torture policies imposed on Palestinian detainees, which have intensified since the beginning of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
During this period, the Israeli prison system has escalated its use of torture, starvation, medical deprivation, and extreme isolation, while blocking the International Committee of the Red Cross from carrying out its monitoring role and preventing prisoners from contacting their families.
With Sarhan’s death—one of 118 prisoners serving life sentences—the number of Palestinian prisoners confirmed to have died in Israeli custody since the start of the genocide rises to 90, while the total number of prisoners killed in Israeli prisons since 1967 has reached 327, according to available documentation.
The Commission and the Prisoners’ Society held Israeli authorities fully responsible for Sarhan’s death and renewed their call for international human rights bodies to move from statements to effective measures that hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against prisoners and the Palestinian people.
They stressed that decades of international inaction have enabled Israel’s impunity, which has reached its peak during the ongoing genocide, despite extensive evidence documenting mass atrocities.
They added that the escalating crimes inside Israeli prisons form part of the broader genocidal campaign targeting the Palestinian people, and that the conditions imposed on prisoners amount to slow‑execution policies, making this period the deadliest in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
As of June 2026, more than 9,400 Palestinians remain imprisoned by Israel, including 3,324 administrative detainees held without charge or trial, and 1,316 prisoners classified by Israel as “unlawful combatants.”
