A 17-year-old boy from the West Bank who was held without charge for six months in an Israeli prison died after he collapsed in unclear circumstances, Palestinian officials have said.
According to his family, Walid Ahmad was “a healthy high schooler” at the time of his arrest last September for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.
The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and dizziness – and can be fatal if left untreated.
“He was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home,” his father, Khalid Ahmad, told the Associated Press. Ahmad said he noticed during Walid’s four court appearances – conducted over video link – that his son appeared to be in poor health.
“His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general,” Ahmad said. He said Walid had told him at one point he was suffering from scabies, a contagious skin rash caused by mites. “Don’t worry about me,” his father recalls him saying.
Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities had denied his requests to visit his client in prison. He told AP three prisoners held alongside Walid said he had dysentery and that it was widespread among young Palestinians at the facility.
Thaer Shriteh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s detainee commission, told AP that Walid had 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 Israeli prison service said in a statement that an investigation was under way: “A 17-year-old security detainee from Megiddo prison, from the West Bank area, passed away yesterday in the prison, with his medical condition being under privacy protection,” it said. “An investigation is still ongoing.”
More than 14,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel in October 2023, according to Palestinian figures. Most are held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.
Israel says those detained are suspected of either militancy or aggression towards soldiers.
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities but prison authorities deny any systemic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by staff. The Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.
Walid is the 63rd Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank or Gaza to die in Israeli custody since the start of the war and the first Palestinian teenager to die in Israeli detention, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Oneg Ben Dror of the Jaffa-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel called for an independent investigation into the death of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and military camps. “We urge the international community to hold Israel accountable for these deaths,” he said.
Palestinians have long alleged that imprisonment is a key element of Israel’s 57-year occupation: estimates suggest up to 40% of Palestinian men have been arrested at least once.
