Palestinian elderly detainee from Gaza dies in Israeli hospital

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Oct 2025 15:20

His martyrdom raises the number of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody amid the Gaza aggression to 80.

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Martyr Kamil Mohammad al-Ajrami seen in a photo posted on social media platforms (Social media)

A 69-year-old Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip died on October 10 at "Israel’s" Soroka Hospital after being transferred from an Israeli prison in the occupied al-Naqab, the General Authority for Civil Affairs announced on Monday.

Martyr Kamil Mohammad Mahmoud al‑Ajrami, a father of six, was detained by Israeli occupation forces on October 25, 2024, and held in prison until his hospital transfer, the Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported.

His death brings the number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody since the outset of the Israeli aggression on Gaza to 80, according to a joint statement by the Commission of Detainees and Ex‑Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).

The statement further said that the total number of documented Palestinian detainee deaths in Israeli jails now stands at 317 since 1967, while the occupation authorities continue to withhold the bodies of 88 prisoners, including 77 whose bodies have been held since the Israeli aggression was launched on Gaza in late 2023.

The organizations said that the current period is the “bloodiest since 1967” for Palestinian detainees.

'Israel' continues to withhold bodies of 88 detainees killed in Israeli custody

They also reported that “Israel” continues to withhold the bodies of 88 detainees killed in Israeli custody, including 77 since the start of the current war, while many others from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared.

In their statement, the organizations condemned what they described as “an unprecedentedly brutal phase in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement,” citing systematic killings and torture inside Israeli prisons. They also accused Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of inciting the enactment of a law to execute Palestinian detainees.

“These acts constitute a war crime and a flagrant violation of international law,” the statement said, urging immediate international intervention to protect Palestinian detainees and end abuses in Israeli prisons.

135 mutilated bodies returned by 'Israel'

Earlier, Gaza health officials said that at least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinians returned by "Israel" were previously held at the notorious Sde Teiman concentration camp in al-Naqab, in southern occupied Palestine, which is already under investigation for torture and deaths in custody.

Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, and a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told The Guardian that documents found inside the body bags indicated all the remains originated from Sde Teiman. The site, previously exposed for keeping Palestinian detainees in cages, blindfolded, handcuffed, shackled to hospital beds, and forced to wear nappies, has long been associated with grave human rights abuses.

“The document tags inside the body bags are written in Hebrew and clearly indicate that the remains were held at Sde Teiman,” al-Bursh said. “The tags also showed that DNA tests had been carried out on some of them there.”

"Israel" has been allegedly conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into the deaths of 36 Palestinians who were detained at the same facility.

As part of the US-brokered truce in Gaza, Hamas has handed over the remains of several captives who died during the war, while "Israel" has so far returned the bodies of 150 Palestinians.

Images of the Palestinian victims reviewed by The Guardian, too graphic to publish, show several of the deceased blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs, and one with a rope around his neck.