A Palestinian from the West Bank is first detainee under 18 to die in Israeli prison, officials say

JERUSALEM (AP) — A teenager from the West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention, officials said.

Walid Ahmad, 17, was a healthy high schooler before his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said. Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

Prison authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by prison staff. But the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Israel’s prison service did not respond to questions about the cause of death. It said only that a 17-year-old from the West Bank had died in Megiddo Prison, a facility that has previously been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, “with his medical condition being kept confidential.” It said it investigates all deaths in detention.

Khalid Ahmad, Walid’s father, said his son was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home in the occupied West Bank during a predawn arrest raid.

Six months later, after several brief court appearances during which no trial date was set, Walid collapsed on March 23 in a prison yard and struck his head, dying soon after, Palestinians officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners.

The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness — and can be fatal if left untreated.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority says he is the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention — and the 63rd Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza since the start of the war. Palestinian prisoner rights groups say that is about one-fifth of the roughly 300 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died since the beginning of the war.

Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war, former detainees told The Associated Press. They described beatings, severe overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.

Israel’s National Security Ministry, which oversees the prison service and is run by ultranationalist Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has boasted of reducing the conditions of Palestinian detainees “to the minimum required by law.” It says the policy is aimed at deterring attacks.

‘Don’t worry about me’

Israel has rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, saying it suspects them of militancy. Many have been held for months without charge or trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel justifies as a necessary security measure. Others are arrested on suspicion of aggression toward soldiers but have their trials continuously delayed, as the military and Israel's security services gather evidence.

Walid sat through at least four court appearances over videoconference, his father said. Each session lasted about three minutes, and another hearing was scheduled for April 21, Walid’s father said.

In a February session, four months after Walid was detained, his father noticed that his son appeared to be in poor health.

“His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general,” the elder Ahmad said. He said Walid told him he had gotten scabies — a contagious skin rash caused by mites that causes intense itching — but had been cured.

“Don’t worry about me,” his father remembers him saying.

Khalid Ahmad later visited his son's friend, a former soccer teammate who had been held with Walid in the same prison. The friend told him Walid had lost weight but that he was OK.

Four days later, the family heard that a 17-year-old had died in the prison. An hour and half later, they got the news that it was Walid.

“We felt the same way as all the parents of the prisoners and all the families and mothers of the prisoners,” said Khalid Ahmad. “We can only say, ’Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we shall return.'”

Cause of death is unknown

Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his requests to visit his client in prison. But he says three prisoners held alongside Walid told him that he was suffering from dysentery, saying it was widespread among young Palestinians held at the facility.

They said Walid suffered from severe diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness, the lawyer said. He said they suspected the disease was spreading because of dirty water, as well as cheese and yogurt that prison guards brought in the morning and that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Megiddo, in northern Israel, "is the harshest prison for minors,” al-Jabrini said. He said he was told that rooms designed for six prisoners often held 16, with some sleeping on the floor. Many complained of scabies and eczema.

Thaer Shriteh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s detainee commission, said Walid collapsed and hit his head on a metal rod, losing consciousness. “The prison administration did not respond to the prisoners’ requests for urgent care to save his life,” he said, citing witnesses who spoke to the commission.

The lawyer and the Palestinian official both said an autopsy is needed to determine the cause of death. Israel has agreed to perform one but a date has not been set.

“The danger in this matter is that the Israeli occupation authorities have not yet taken any action to stop this (disease) and have not provided any treatment in general to save the prisoners in Megiddo prison,” Shriteh said.

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This story has been updated to correct that Walid Ahmad is the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention, according to officials. It is not clear if he is the first teen. It has also been updated to correct that his father said a hearing was scheduled for April 21, not necessarily a trial date.

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