Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs- 1/12/2024
Ramallah – The prisoner advocacy institutions (Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) announced on Sunday the martyrdom of two detainees from Gaza: Mohammad Abdulrahman Hwaishal Idris (35 years old) and Moaz Khaled Mohammad Rayyan (31 years old).
In a joint statement, the institutions revealed that they were informed of Idris's death through the Civil Affairs Authority on 29/11/2024 in Ofer Prison. Meanwhile, the news of Rayyan’s death was received after inquiries with the Israeli army about his fate, which revealed he had been martyred on 2/11/2024, without disclosing the location of his death.
The statement detailed that Idris, according to his family, had no prior health issues before his disappearance on 25 August 2024. Rayyan, on the other hand, was paralyzed before his detention on 21 October 2024.
In November, the institutions had previously reported the martyrdom of a father and son in Israeli prisons after Hamoked Center secured a response from the Israeli High Court of Justice regarding their fate. The two martyrs were Munir Abdullah Mahmoud Al-Faqaawi (42 years old) and his son Yassin Munir Al-Faqaawi (18 years old). This brings the number of martyrs among detainees since the start of the war to 47, based on available data, while Israel continues to conceal the identities of dozens of detainees from Gaza who have died in its prisons and camps post-war.
The prisoner institutions emphasized that the ongoing revelation of additional martyrs among Gaza detainees—who perished in recent months—points to Israel’s continued use of systematic torture, medical neglect, starvation, rape, sexual assaults, and relentless mistreatment, including constant restraints and turning all aspects of prison infrastructure into tools of torture, deprivation, and humiliation.
The institutions noted the shocking testimonies and data gathered, even over 400 days since the war’s start, continue to expose another dimension of genocide—ongoing crimes against prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and camps.
They further highlighted the critical role of time for thousands of detainees, particularly the sick and wounded. Many detainees, who initially endured the brutal prison conditions at the beginning of the war, can no longer withstand the worsening situation. Healthy prisoners have also become ill due to the spread of diseases, starvation, and other systemic neglect, as reflected in daily observations from visits and court proceedings.
The institutions warned that the catastrophic conditions faced by prisoners, especially the sick and wounded, are bound to result in more deaths. They also noted the inability to account for the number of sick prisoners due to the rapid spread of diseases and the detention of more wounded individuals. Historically, the number of martyr detainees and prisoners has reached unprecedented levels compared to other periods of resistance in Palestine.
Another critical issue raised is the Israeli army's deliberate manipulation of responses to inquiries by the prisoner institutions. In numerous cases, the army claimed it had no information about a detainee or that the detainee was not present, only for later updates to reveal the detainee was either incarcerated or martyred. The recent case of the Faqaawi martyrs is a prime example: initial responses denied their presence, but subsequent legal efforts confirmed their deaths.
The institutions held Israel fully accountable for these deaths, adding these crimes to the long record of Israeli violations, which have peaked with the ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza—marking the most violent chapter in the conflict’s history.
With the martyrdom of Idris and Rayyan, the total number of documented martyr detainees since 1967 has risen to 284, excluding dozens of detainees whose identities and circumstances of death remain concealed by Israel. Since October 7, 2024, the number of martyr detainees with confirmed identities has reached 47.
The prisoner advocacy institutions renewed their call for the international human rights system to take decisive actions to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes, impose sanctions, and restore the role of international justice systems to counter the genocide. They called for an end to the exceptional immunity granted to Israel, which has enabled it to remain above accountability and justice.