(MENAFN) A Palestinian prisoner, Ahmed Khdeirat, 22, has died due to worsening health conditions while held at Ramon Prison in southern Israel, Palestinian prisoner rights groups reported Wednesday.

The Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, referencing the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority — which coordinates with Israeli officials — confirmed Khdeirat’s death at Israel’s Soroka Medical Center. Khdeirat hailed from ad-Dhahiriya in Hebron, located in the southern West Bank.

In August, the Palestinian Prisoners Society had issued a warning about Khdeirat’s “serious deterioration” in health. He had been held under administrative detention since May 2024. The group detailed that “Khdeirat, detained in Israel’s Negev prison, is facing a severe decline in his health due to chronic diabetes and a skin disease (scabies),” further noting that his weight had plummeted to 40 kilograms.

Administrative detention permits Israeli military authorities to imprison individuals without formal charges or trial, renewable in six-month intervals based on alleged security concerns. Courts rely on classified intelligence files inaccessible to both detainees and their attorneys.

Khdeirat’s case is emblematic of a larger crisis involving thousands of Palestinian inmates in Israeli custody suffering from severe medical neglect. Critics accuse Israeli authorities of implementing policies that deliberately endanger detainees’ lives.

The militant group Hamas mourned Khdeirat’s passing, highlighting that the death toll of Palestinian prisoners since October 2023 has risen to 78. Hamas demanded urgent international intervention to hold Israel accountable for “its crimes against the detainees.”

On Tuesday, a joint report by the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the Commission of Detainees Affairs, and Al-Dameer Foundation revealed that 77 Palestinian prisoners have died since the onset of Israel’s intensified war on Gaza nearly two years ago. The report states that 46 of those deceased were from the Gaza Strip, with many others killed in field executions.

The document also reported that more than 20,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been arrested during this period, including 1,600 children and approximately 595 women.

Violence and tensions have surged in the West Bank amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where Israeli operations have killed over 67,000 people. Official Palestinian sources report that since October 2023, at least 1,049 Palestinians have died and around 10,300 have been wounded in West Bank confrontations.

Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, alongside parts of Syria and Lebanon, has persisted for decades, with the Israeli government continuously rejecting withdrawal and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.

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