Elderly Palestinian Political Detainee from Jenin Killed in Occupation’s Prisons

November 2, 2025

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – Israeli occupation officials have revealed the martyrdom of a 63-year-old Palestinian political detainee, Mohammad Hussein Mohammad Ghawadra, who hails from Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank. Ghawadra was arrested on August 6, 2024 - just over a year ago - and was held in “Janot Prison” (formerly Nafha and Ramon) until his martyrdom. The circumstances of his killing remain unclear due to the complete information blackout that occupation authorities continue to impose on Palestinian detainees.

The martyr Mohammad Ghawadra was the father of currently-held administrative detainee Sami Ghawadra, and of released prisoner Shadi Ghawadra, who was deported to Egypt after being freed as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded earlier this year.

The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society affirmed that the martyrdom of prisoner Mohammad Ghawadra comes amid ongoing systematic incitement led by the occupation authorities, represented by the fascist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is pushing for legislation to execute prisoners and boasts of his crimes against them—at a time when Palestinian prisoners are subjected to one of the most severe manifestations of comprehensive and ongoing genocide within Israeli occupation prisons. The killing of the martyr Ghawadra adds to a series of compound crimes carried out by the occupation system against prisoners, aimed at killing them slowly and destroying them psychologically and physically.

The two institutions noted that following the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli Prison Service escalated its crimes and violations against detainees. Testimonies and statements by released prisoners provided irrefutable evidence of compound torture crimesand field executions inside prisons—evidence that was clearly reflected in the bodies of the martyrs returned as part of the agreement.

With the martyrdom of detainee Mohammad Ghawadra, the number of martyrs of the prisoners’ movement since the start of the genocide has risen to 81 people whose identities have been confirmed, amid the ongoing crime of enforced disappearance affecting dozens of detainees. This phase in the history of the prisoners’ movement is the bloodiest since 1967, with the total number of identified martyred detainees reaching 318 people since the occupation of 1967, according to documented data from prisoner institutions. The number of prisoners whose bodies the occupation continues to withhold—both before and after the war—has risen to 89, including 78 since the war began.

The two institutions stressed that the accelerating pace of prisoner martyrdom at this unprecedented rate confirms that the Israeli occupation’s prison system continues implementing a policy of slow killing—as hardly a month passes without a new martyr among the prisoners. With the ongoing daily crimes inside prisons, the number of martyrs is expected to rise, as thousands of detainees remain held in conditions devoid of the most basic necessities of life, and are subjected to systematic violations including torture, starvation, physical and sexual assault, medical crimes, and the spread of infectious diseases, foremost among them scabies, which has returned to spread among prisoners—alongside unprecedented deprivation policies in their severity and scope.

The institutions also added that the field executions that have targeted dozens of detainees confirm the criminal nature of the occupation system. The images of the prisoners’ bodies handed over after the ceasefire provided conclusive proof of the extent of the crimes committed against them in the field.

The Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society hold occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of detainee Mohammad Ghawadra, and renewed their call to the international human rights system to take effective measures to hold the occupation leaders accountable for war crimes committed against the prisoners and the Palestinian people.

The two institutions also called for the imposition of clear international sanctions that isolate the occupation, restore the original role of the international human rights system for which it was established, and end the horrifying state of paralysis that has afflicted it during the genocide. They further demanded an end to the impunity still enjoyed by “Israel,” due to the support of international powers that continue to treat it as an entity above law and accountability.

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