RAMALLAH, October 19, 2025 (WAFA) - The Civil Affairs Commission has informed both the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) that Palestinian detainee Mahmoud Talal Abdullah has died at Israel’s Assaf Harofeh Hospital.
Palestinian detainee Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, 49, was detained by the Israeli occupation on February 1 of this year. Following his detention, his health condition deteriorated severely, and it was later confirmed that he was suffering from cancer. He was transferred from Megiddo Prison to Gilboa Prison and later to the Ramla Prison Clinic.
Despite medical examinations confirming that he had cancer in an advanced stage, the Israeli occupation refused to release him and kept him in detention until he died one day after being transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.
Abdullah, from Jenin refugee camp, was a former prisoner who spent two years in Israeli jails following his detention during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2002. Prior to his most recent detention, he was undergoing treatment for existing health conditions, but his re-detention prevented him from continuing his medical care.
The commission and PPS confirmed that Abdullah’s death adds to the series of crimes carried out by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian detainees, as part of its ongoing genocidal war.
They emphasized that testimonies from hundreds of former prisoners document systematic torture and abuse, which constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, affirming that what occurs inside the prisons is part of the ongoing all-out genocidal war.
With Abdullah’s death, the number of prisoners and detainees who have died since the onset of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023, and whose identities are known, has risen to 79.
It is important to note that dozens of detainees from Gaza remain subject to the crime of enforced disappearance.
This period has been the deadliest in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement since 1967. As a result, the total number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 has risen to 316, said the joint statement.
The Commission and PPS emphasized that the unprecedented rate of deaths among prisoners and detainees underscores that the Israeli prison system continues to implement a policy of slow killing. They stressed that not a month passes without a new death among prisoners and detainees, and with daily violations persisting in the prisons, the number of deaths is expected to rise as thousands remain held in conditions deprived of basic necessities and subjected to systematic, ongoing abuses, including torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual violence and conditions that lead to severe and contagious diseases. In addition, there is an unprecedented level of deprivation and dispossession.
This is in addition to the field executions targeting dozens of prisoners and detainees. The statement added that the recently handed-over bodies following the ceasefire serve as clear and conclusive evidence of the extent of the crimes committed against numerous prisoners and detainees.
The Commission and PPS held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the death of Abdallah. They reiterated their calls for the international human rights community to take decisive action to hold Israeli officials accountable for the ongoing war crimes they are committing against the Palestinian people.
In a joint statement, they called for the imposition of sanctions to isolate Israel internationally and restore the role of the international human rights system, which has been severely undermined during the genocide. They also urged an end to the exceptional immunity Israel has been granted by colonial powers, which have allowed it to evade accountability and punishment.
T.R.
