Palestinian teenager dies in Israeli prison due to starvation: doctor
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Representational. (Associated Press photo)
Tel Aviv: An Israeli doctor said that the cause of death of a Palestinian teenager in Israeli prison was most likely due to starvation. The doctor had observed the autopsy, the Associated Press reported.
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy conducted by Israeli experts, at the request of the boy's family.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Solomon's report from the family. It did not conclude a cause of death but said Ahmad was in a state of extreme weight loss and muscle wasting.
It was also noted that Ahmad had complained to the prison of inadequate food in December, citing reports from the prison medical clinic.
Ahmad died last month after collapsing in Megiddo Prison and striking his head, Palestinian officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners. Israel's prison service said a team was appointed to investigate Ahmad's death, and its findings would be sent to the authorised authorities.
Ahmad is the youngest Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli prison since the start of the Gaza war, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which has documented Palestinian prisoner deaths. He was taken into custody from his home in the West Bank during a pre-dawn raid in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said.
The autopsy was conducted on March 27 at Israel's Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which has not released a report of its findings and did not respond to requests for comment. The Ahmad family's lawyer, Nadia Daqqa, confirmed Solomon, a gastrointestinal surgeon, was granted permission to observe the autopsy by an Israeli civil court.
Widespread abuse in Israeli prisons, rights groups say. They have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack.