Palestinian Child Detainee Killed in Israeli Occupation’s Custody

Commission of Detainees’ Affairs & Palestinian Prisoner’s Society 
March 24, 2025 

Ramallah, Palestine - A Palestinian child held as a political prisoner by the Israeli occupation has been killed in custody. The Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs was informed late on Sunday evening that 17-year-old detainee, Walid Khaled Ahmed from the village of Silwad east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, was martyred in Israel's Megiddo prison. 

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees' Affairs subsequently informed the child's family. The circumstances of his killing remain obscure due to the information blackout imposed by occupation authorities. The child had been held behind bars since his arrest on September 30, 2024. 

Walid Khaled Ahmed is the latest Palestinian political prisoner to be killed by the occupation in its custody in what is the deadliest period yet for Palestinian detainees. The rate and frequency of killings of Palestinian detainees is unprecedented, particularly since the genocide in Gaza. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs affirm once again that the Israeli occupation holds full responsibility for the murder of Walid and dozens of other detainees in its custody - some of whom were tortured to death - and must be held accountable for these crimes. 

Walid is the 63rd Palestinian detainee to be killed in Israeli custody, whether directly or indirectly, since the start of the ongoing genocide in October 2023. Of the 63 people killed, at least 40 were abducted from the occupied Gaza Strip. The bodies of the vast majority of the 63 people killed are still being withheld by the occupation, with only two returned to their families for burial. There are many more unidentified martyred detainees who were taken from Gaza and whose bodies remain forcibly disappeared. 

The total number of identified Palestinian detainees killed since the occupation of 1967, now stands at 300 people, with the bodies of at least 72 of those still being withheld. 

The Commission and the PPS stress that the rate of Palestinian detainees losing their lives is unprecedented and will only increase with time. Thousands of Palestinians are held behind bars undergoing a myriad of severe violations including torture, starvation, sexual assault, deprivation of medical treatment, unsanitary conditions leading grave and infectious diseases. The international community must act now to save the lives of Palestinian political prisoners, including children, in Israeli custody.