Palestinian rights institutions said that a detainee from Gaza has died in Israeli prisons, raising the number of Palestinians who breathed their last in custody since October 2023 to 87.
In a joint statement, the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said that Hamza Abdullah Abdulhadi Adwan, 67, died in Israeli detention on September 9, 2025.
Adwan, who suffered from chronic heart disease and required continuous medical care, was detained on November 12, 2024, at a military checkpoint in northern Gaza, the statement said.
The institutions said Adwan was married and a father of nine children, two of whom were killed before the start of Israel’s Gaza genocide in October 2023.
They said his death comes amid what they described as systematic abuses against Palestinian detainees, including torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual assault, humiliation and detention under degrading conditions.
According to the statement, more than 100 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the war in Gaza, but Israeli authorities have officially disclosed the identities of only 87 of them.
Systematic abuses
The remaining cases, the institutions said, remain subject to enforced disappearance, alongside dozens of detainees who were executed in the field.
The groups also said that photographs released of detainees’ bodies following the ceasefire in Gaza that took effect on October 10 provide evidence of systematic executions carried out against prisoners.
With Adwan’s death, the number of Palestinian detainees whose identities have been officially announced since October 2023 has reached 87, including 51 from Gaza, the statement said.
The total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since 1967 stands at 324, according to figures documented by rights organisations.
The two groups held Israeli authorities fully responsible for Adwan’s death and called on the international community to take concrete steps to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes committed against Palestinian detainees and the Palestinian people.
According to Palestinian data, more than 9,300 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including at least 3,385 held in administrative detention without charge or trial.
Israel has sharply escalated its violations against Palestinian detainees, particularly those from Gaza, since the start of the war, including starvation, torture, sexual violence and systematic denial of medical care, rights groups said.
Israel has killed more than 71,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
