RAMALLAH, Saturday, August 31, 2024 (WAFA) - A Palestinian father-of-seven Saturday evening died in Israeli custody, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission (PAC) and the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

The PAC and PPS said in a joint press release that 65-year-old Nasr Salem Said Zyara, a resident of Gaza, died in the Israeli Prison of Ramleh, on Friday, 16 August 2024, and described him as one of scores of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip who died due to systematic torture, and whose identities are still concealed and bodies withheld by the occupation authorities.

They added that Zyara, according to his family, was detained along with his son, Jihad, 37, currently held in the Naqab Prison, from his house in the Tuffah neighbourhood on 29 December 2023.

He was subjected along with his son to interrogation and torture for hours at his house before being arrested.

The PAC and PPS revealed that prisoners in the Ramleh Prison confirmed that Zyara had been transferred to the Prison just a week before he died in a very serious health condition, as he was suffering from burns in the lower part of his body and was incapable of walking until his death.

They reported his family saying that he was suffering from diabetes and cardiac problems but did not suffer any burns to his body at the time of his detention.

The PAC and PPS said that this brings the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody and whose death was announced since October 7, 2023, to 24, as the occupation authorities continue to conceal the identities of dozens of others who died in prisons and military camps and their accurate number was not identified, not to mention detainees who were extrajudicially executed by Israeli forces.

K.F.