Martyrdom of Detainee Alaa Marwan Hamza Al-Mahlawi from Gaza
A Day After the Death of Mohammad Hussein from Nur Shams Refugee Camp
Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and Palestinian Prisoners’ Club: “Prisoners Face Another Form of Genocide”
Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and Palestinian Prisoners’ Club – December 5, 2024
The General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club of the martyrdom of detainee Alaa Marwan Hamza Al-Mahlawi (42 years old), who was arrested on December 21, 2023. According to his family, Alaa did not suffer from any chronic illnesses prior to his detention, except for an issue with one of his eyes.
The Commission and the Club stated that the available information about the crime committed against Al-Mahlawi indicates that he was detained in Negev Prison. Prisoners who were recently visited confirmed his deteriorating health condition, though no further details were provided. According to recent reports, he was transferred in late November to Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where he died this Thursday morning.
Alaa Al-Mahlawi was arrested on the day his father was martyred in Gaza. He was married and a father of four children, the eldest being a 16-year-old daughter and the youngest an eight-year-old son.
The martyrdom of Al-Mahlawi follows the death of detainee Mohammad Walid Hussein from Nur Shams Refugee Camp just a day earlier. The Commission and the Club noted that the number of martyrs among prisoners has reached an unprecedented level amidst the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
With Al-Mahlawi’s death, the number of prisoner martyrs since the beginning of the war of extermination has risen to 49, including 30 from Gaza, whose identities have been verified and announced. This increases the total number of prisoner martyrs identified since 1967 to 286. However, dozens of detainees from Gaza who died during or after the war remain unaccounted for due to Israel’s policy of enforced disappearance.
The Commission and the Club emphasized that the ongoing treatment of prisoners constitutes another form of genocide. The systematic policies imposed by the Israeli prison system have turned detention centers into arenas of torture, aiming to execute prisoners through systematic assassination.
The escalation in the number of martyrs is expected to worsen as thousands of detainees remain in prisons, facing relentless violations, including torture, starvation, medical negligence, sexual abuse, and the deliberate imposition of conditions that lead to severe and infectious diseases.
The Commission and the Club held Israel fully responsible for the martyrdom of Alaa Al-Mahlawi, adding this crime to its extensive historical record of atrocities, which have peaked with the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
They reiterated their call to the international human rights system to:
The Israeli prison system continues to enforce enforced disappearance policies against hundreds of detainees from Gaza held in military camps.