🔴 Palestinian Detainee in West Bank Martyred in Occupation’s Custody

Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society

October 19, 2025

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – Israeli occupation authorities have disclosed to Palestinian officials the martyrdom of Palestinian political detainee, 49-year-old Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, from the Jenin Refugee Camp on Sunday while he was held at the occupation’s Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

Abdullah was arrested by occupation forces on February 1, 2025. After his arrest, his health condition deteriorated significantly, and it was later revealed that he had advanced-stage cancer. He was transferred from Megiddo Prison, then Gilboa Prison, and later to the Ramleh Prison Clinic. Despite medical tests confirming his cancer diagnosis at an advanced stage, the occupation refused to release him and kept him in custody until he died. He died just one day after being transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

Abdullah was a former prisoner who was detained during the Second Intifada in 2002, spending two years behind bars. Before his latest arrest, he suffered from health problems and was undergoing treatment. His re-arrest deprived him of completing his medical care.

The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society hold the occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of detainee Mahmoud Abdullah. His martyrdom adds to a series of complex crimes committed by the occupation system, as part of a systematic policy of killing prisoners, within the framework of an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. This crime is a direct continuation of the testimonies of hundreds of released prisoners, which document systematic torture and violations, considered crimes against humanity and war crimes, confirming that what takes place inside the prisons is part of a part of the genocide.

With the killing of detainee Mahmoud Abdullah, the number of identified martyred Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of the genocide has risen to 79 people, amid ongoing crimes of forced disappearance affecting dozens of detainees. This current phase marks the deadliest period in the history of the prisoners’ movement since 1967. According to documented data from prisoners’ organizations, the number of known prisoner martyrs has reached 316 people, and the number of withheld bodies (before and after the war) has risen to 87 people, including 76 people since the war began.

The two institutions emphasized that the accelerating pace of prisoner killings in this unprecedented manner confirms once again that the Israeli prison system continues to implement a policy of slow killing. Not a month goes by without the announcement of a new martyr among the detainees. With daily crimes ongoing inside prisons, the number of martyrs is expected to rise, especially as thousands of detainees are held in conditions lacking the most basic necessities of life, and are exposed to systematic violations, including: torture, starvation, physical and sexual assault, medical neglect, spread of infectious diseases, particularly scabies as well as unprecedented levels of deprivation and punitive measures.

In addition to all this, there have also been field executions of dozens of detainees. The images of bodies recently returned after the ceasefire serve as clear evidence of the level of brutality inflicted on numerous prisoners in the field.

The PPS and the Commission call on the international human rights system to take effective measures to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable. They called for the imposition of clear international sanctions that would isolate the occupation, restore the true role of the human rights system, and put an end to its paralyzing state of inaction during the genocide. They also demanded an end to the exceptional impunity granted to the occupation by certain global powers—treating it as if it were above the law and accountability.