🔴 Two more Palestinian Detainees Martyred in Occupation’s Custody

January 29, 2025

Ramallah, Palestine – Two Palestinian political prisoners arrested from Gaza have been martyred in the Israeli occupation’s custody, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association announced today after receiving confirmation from the occupation army.

35-year-old Mohammad Sharif al-Asali was martyred on May 17, 2024, while 25-year-old Ibrahim Adnan Ashour was martyred on June 23, 2024. Both of their bodies are still being withheld by occupation forces.

Mohammad al-Asali is a husband and father-of-four. He was arrested from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the Israeli occupation’s assault in March 2024. His family later learned that he was being held in Asqalan Prison. He had no chronic health problems prior to his arrest according to his family. During the genocide, all of his siblings were martyred, and only his father survived.

As for the martyred detainee Ashour, he was arrested on February 14, 2024, from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Like al-Asali, he had no known chronic health issues.

Prisoner defense groups submitted multiple requests to visit Ashour thinking he was in Ofer Prison, to no avail. The occupation’s last response was that he was in interrogation and could not be visited. Even though Ashour was killed back in June, occupation authorities did not inform the lawyers until more than six months later. In most of its responses, the occupation claims that the interrogation is ongoing, in an attempt to evade any accountability.

The Commission and the PPS explained that with the martyrdom of al-Asali and Ashour, the number of identified martyred detainees in Israeli prisons since the beginning of the genocide has risen to 58 people, at least 37 of whom were arrested from Gaza. This is the highest number in history, marking this period as the bloodiest in the history of the Palestinian prisoners' movement since 1967. The total number of known martyrs since 1967 now stands at 295 people, with dozens more detainees from Gaza still subject to enforced disappearance.

We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of al-Asali and Ashour. Prisoner institutions reiterate their call to the international human rights system to take effective decisions to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable for the war crimes they continue to carry out against the Palestinian people. We demand sanctions against the occupation that would isolate it internationally and restore the core role of the human rights system, which was established for this purpose. They also called for an end to the exceptional immunity that colonial states have granted Israel, treating it as above accountability, punishment, and justice.