The Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Authority (governmental) and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (civil society) said in a joint statement that the General Authority for Civil Affairs (the official Palestinian liaison with the Israeli side) informed them of "the martyrdom of administrative detainee Ahmed Saeed Saleh Tazaza'a (20 years old) from Jenin, in Megiddo Prison."
Administrative detention is a detention order issued by an Israeli military order, based on the pretext of a security threat, without indictment. The detention period extends to six months, subject to renewal, after the intelligence service submits to the court a "secret file" that the lawyer and/or the detainee are prohibited from reviewing.
The statement stated that Tazaza'a had been detained since May 6, but did not provide "precise details about the circumstances of his death."
The two organizations stated that the martyrdom of the Palestinian prisoner adds to "the record of martyrs of the prisoner movement who have ascended as a result of the organized crimes practiced by the Israeli prison administration in an unprecedented manner since the beginning of the ongoing genocide (since October 7, 2023), most notably: torture, medical crimes, and starvation."
The committee and the club added that "Megiddo Prison, where detainee Tazaza'a was being held, was one of the most prominent prisons where serious crimes were recorded, especially with the continued spread of scabies, which the prison administration turned into a clear tool to kill more prisoners."
They noted that "with the martyrdom of detainee Tazaza'a, the number of martyrs among prisoners and detainees since the beginning of the genocide has risen to 76 martyrs whose identities are known, in light of the ongoing crime of enforced disappearance." They said that the current phase in the history of the prisoner movement is considered "the bloodiest, as the number of martyrs among the prisoner movement whose identities are known since 1967 until today has reached 313 martyrs, according to documented data from institutions."
The two organizations emphasized that "the unprecedented escalation in the death toll of prisoners and detainees confirms once again that the occupation's prison system is continuing to implement a policy of slow killing against them." They continued: "While the world is demanding the release of the occupation's prisoners (held by Hamas), it is ignoring the ongoing systematic killing of our prisoners and the crimes of torture that are beyond description."
The Commission and the Club held "the occupation authorities fully responsible for the death of detainee Tazaza'a," and renewed their call for the international human rights community to "take effective decisions to hold the occupation's leaders accountable for war crimes and impose clear sanctions that isolate the occupation internationally."
Israel holds approximately 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including 3,629 administrative detainees, according to prisoners' organizations.
In parallel with the war of extermination, the Israeli occupation army and settlers escalated their attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,012 Palestinians, the injury of approximately 7,000 others, and the arrest of more than 18,500 people, according to official Palestinian data.
Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 210,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and a famine that has claimed the lives of many.
