RAMALLAH, January 11, 2026 (WAFA) — The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced on Sunday the death of Palestinian detainee Hamza Abdullah Adwan, 67, from the Gaza Strip, noting that his family had previously received conflicting information regarding his fate.
According to the latest response received by the two institutions from the Israeli army, Adwan died on September 9, 2025, without further details, the institutions said in a joint statement.
They explained that Adwan was detained at the military checkpoint in Gaza on November 12, 2024. He was married and the father of nine children, two of whom were killed prior to the war.
Adwan’s family said he was detained despite suffering from serious health conditions, including heart disease, and was in need of continuous medical care and follow-up.
The commission and the PPS stated that Adwan is one of more than 100 prisoners and detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the genocide, noting that the identities of 87 have been officially announced. They said the deaths were the result of widespread torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and other forms of deprivation, abuse, humiliation, and detention under inhumane conditions.
They added that many detainees from Gaza who died in Israeli custody remain subject to enforced disappearance, alongside dozens who were summarily executed. The institutions pointed to images of detainees’ bodies returned after the ceasefire as evidence of systematic executions carried out by the Israeli army.
With Adwan’s death, the number of Palestinian prisoners whose identities have been announced as having died since the genocide rose to 87, including 51 detainees from Gaza. This brings the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since 1967 to 324, representing only those whose identities are known to rights organizations.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for Adwan’s death and renewed their call on the international human rights system to take effective action to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes committed against the Palestinian people and political detainees.
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