RAMALLAH: Israeli authorities on Sunday informed the family of Palestinian prisoner Imad Rajeh Sarhan, 47, from the city of Haifa in the 1948 territory, that he died in Gilboa prison after suffering a heart attack on Saturday, without providing further details about the circumstances of his death.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society said Sarhan had been detained since Oct. 15, 2001, and was serving a life sentence.
They stated that during the early years of his imprisonment, he was subjected to prolonged interrogation and systematic torture, which caused serious and lasting health complications.
His condition deteriorated over the years, and he was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement.
The two institutions added that Sarhan suffered from chronic heart and vascular diseases and high blood pressure, and in recent years had been forced to use a wheelchair due to the severe decline in his health, while still being held in harsh conditions.
They said Sarhan was a victim of the medical neglect and systematic abuse faced by Palestinians in Israeli prisons, particularly amid an escalation in harsh prison policies since the beginning of the ongoing war.
According to their statement, Sarhan’s death raises the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7, 2023, and whose identities have been determined, to 90, while the total number of prisoner deaths since 1967 has reached 327.
The institutions hold Israeli authorities fully responsible for his death and have called on international legal and human rights bodies to take concrete steps toward accountability and to end impunity.
They added that conditions in Israeli prisons are the worst they have ever been in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement, with reports of systematic abuse, deprivation, and medical neglect.
More than 9,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 3,324 administrative detainees held without charges or trial and 1,316 classified as “unlawful combatants.”
