On Thursday, the Palestinian Detainee’s Committee has confirmed the death of a detainee, held by Israel under Administrative Detention orders, without charges or trial.
The Committee said the young man, Mohammad Ahmad Rateb Sabbar, 21, was taken prisoner in May of last year, 2022, before he was slapped with a four-month Administrative Detention order, without charges or trial, and the order was renewed for four additional months.
The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) said Sabbar died as a result of medical negligence in “Hadassah” Israeli Hospital in Jerusalem after he was transferred there from “Ofer” prison because he was suffering from complications from a disease he suffered from in the intestines resulting from congenital deformities.
WAFA added that the detainee needed a certain type of prescribed medication, but the Israeli Prison Authority barred him for receiving the meds.
The deceased detainee is the youngest son of a family of 7 members, as he has three sisters and an older brother, noting that this is his first arrest.
His family said Israel committed two crimes against their son, first by keeping him held without charges or trial, and second by denying him access to his life-saving medications.
Prior to his arrest, Sabbar was suffering from a congenital problem in the stomach and intestines, and he was receiving regular treatment, medicine and special food.
He is the eighth Palestinian detainee who dies in Israeli prisons since last year, especially since October 7, 2023.
Six of the seven detainees who are confirmed to have died in Israeli prisons, due to torture, lack of medical treatment and dire living conditions since October 7 have been identified as:
1. Omar Daraghma, October 23.
2. Arafat Hamdan, October 24.
3. Majid Zaqqoul, November 6.
4. Abdul-Rahman Mer’ey, November 13.
5. Tha’er Abu Asab, November 18.
6. Abdul-Rahman al-Bahsh, January 1, 2024.
7. A Detainee who remain unidentified, and Israel is yet to release information about him.
The only available information about the unidentified detainee is that he was at the Sde Teman Prison Camp, while some Israeli media outlets said he was killed by the soldiers in the facility.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor recently demanded an independent investigation into Israel’s alleged “torture and murder of Palestinian civilians” who have been captured and detained by the Israel Defense Forces—particularly those who have been held in the Sde Teman army camp, located between the Israeli city of Beersheba and Gaza.
Sde Teman has been turned into “a new Guantánamo-like prison,” the Euro-Med said, comparing it to the U.S. prison where inmates accused by the U.S. of being terrorists have been held indefinitely, many without being charged, and subjected to torture for more than two decades.
The Palestinian Detainees Committee and the Prisoners Prisoners’ Society stated that the number of sick detainees in detention centers doubled after October 7 as a result of the double deprivation of treatment with the aim of killing them, in addition to the crimes of torture, abuse, and the starvation policy, which doubled the suffering of the detainees in an unprecedented manner, and directly affected the fate of the sick among them, in addition to the extreme cold and severe overcrowding, in the absence of sufficient clothing, any means of heating, or even blankets for them.
They added that most detainees in detention centers suffer from diseases and health problems, as a result of the dire living conditions, torture and abuse, the lack of medical attention, in addition to the systematic retaliatory measures imposed on them by the prison administration after October 7.
The Detainees’ Committee and the Prisoners’ Society held Israel’s Prison Authority fully responsible Sabbar’s death, and for the fate of all detainees.
They stated that “the crime committed against detainee Al-Sabbar comes within the framework of the comprehensive aggression and genocide in Gaza, and the systematic killings carried out by the occupation by decision against detainees in its detention centers, and under a government that had sought to enact the death penalty law against them, along with a group of Gaza detainees,” WAFA News Agency said.
The Detainees’ Committee and the Prisoner’ Society called on the international human rights system at all levels to take real and tangible measures to put an end to the level of brutal crimes carried out by the occupation against Palestinian detainees, who are subjected to systematic and deliberate killings through a set of policies and tools, the frequency of which has escalated significantly and unprecedentedly after October 7.
The number of detainees in the Israeli occupation detention centers today is more than 9,000, including 3,484 administrative detainees, while the number of detainees before October 7 was more than 5,250, and the administrative detainees were about 1,320.
