(MENAFN) An elderly Palestinian detainee passed away on Sunday while in Israeli custody, according to reports from prisoner advocacy organizations.

The 63-year-old, Mohammad Ghawadra from Jenin in the northern West Bank, died while being held in Israel, as stated by the Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society in a joint announcement.

Ghawadra had been arrested on August 6, 2024, and detained in Ganot Prison in southern Israel. The statement did not clarify the precise cause or place of his death but noted that it occurred “amid ongoing incitement led by the fascist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to pass a law allowing the execution of prisoners and boasts of crimes committed against them.”

He was the father of Sami Ghawadra, an administrative detainee, and Shadi Ghawadra, a former prisoner who was freed and deported to Egypt earlier this year as part of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.

Reports indicate that Ghawadra’s death brings the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since October 2023 to 81. The advocacy groups also stated that Israel continues to withhold the bodies of 89 prisoners, including 78 who died after the onset of the Gaza war.

They cautioned that the death toll is expected to increase, pointing to the “inhumane conditions” faced by thousands of detainees, who are reportedly subjected to torture, starvation, physical and sexual abuse, and medical negligence.

According to recent figures, Israel has detained more than 20,000 Palestinians since October 2023, with over 9,100 still imprisoned, alongside hundreds held in military facilities. During the same period, attacks carried out by Israeli forces and illegal settlers across the occupied West Bank have resulted in the deaths of 1,063 Palestinians and injuries to nearly 10,000 others.

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