LONDON: A 29-year-old Palestinian man shot and seriously wounded last month by Israeli forces in the northwestern West Bank died on Monday in an Israeli hospital east of Tel Aviv.
The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said Qusai Ibrahim Ali Rayan, from the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a soldier. He was admitted to Beilinson Hospital on April 15, the same day he was shot during a military raid in Salfit Governorate.
Israeli authorities issued a detention order for Rayan while he underwent several surgeries, but his health continued to deteriorate. They agreed to release him this month but his lawyer decided he should remain in hospital as he was unconscious and needed help from a ventilator to breathe, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli authorities accused Rayan, who was said to have one child, of attempting to carry out a stabbing attack. The detainees’ organizations rejected this allegation and accused Israeli forces of killing him in cold blood based on false accusations.
At least 40 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers or soldiers since January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 100 detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 2023; of those, only 84 have been publicly identified, including 50 detainees from Gaza.
