RAMALLAH, December 14, 2025 (WAFA) — Palestinian detainee Sakhr Ahmad Zaoul, 26, from the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem, was announced dead in the Israeli prison of Ofer on Sunday morning, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
In a joint statement, the two organizations said that the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority informed them of Zaoul’s death. He had been held under administrative detention, without charges or trial, since June 11, 2025, and was imprisoned in Israel’s Ofer detention facility. He did not suffer from any chronic illnesses, according to his family.
The two organizations condemned the systematic mistreatment and killings of Palestinian detainees, describing it as a form of deliberate extermination, encouraged by Israeli officials including far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. They said Israeli authorities employ methods of slow execution through a comprehensive system involving all security and prison services, alongside judicial complicity, aiming to institutionalize the destruction of Palestinian prisoners physically and psychologically.
Reported violations include torture, starvation, denial of medical care, sexual assault including rape, and the exploitation of prisoners’ basic rights as tools of repression. Overcrowding and unhygienic conditions have also led to the spread of diseases, including scabies, which has become a further instrument of abuse.
The organizations warned that the rapid increase in prisoner deaths indicates a deliberate policy of slow killing, with at least one prisoner dying each month, while bodies of deceased detainees continue to be withheld. Field executions of detainees have been documented, further underscoring the criminal nature of the Israeli system.
The Commission and Prisoners Society held the Israeli Prison Service fully responsible for Zaoul’s death and called on international human rights mechanisms to take urgent action to hold Israeli officials accountable, end the systematic killings, and secure the release of arbitrarily detained prisoners.
Currently, over 9,300 Palestinian detainees are held in Israeli prisons, including more than 50 women, roughly 350 children, and 3,368 administrative detainees as of November 2025.
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