DaysofPal- A Palestinian detainee from Nablus died on Saturday while in Israeli custody, highlighting the deteriorating conditions and treatment within the prison system.
The General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club that 54-year-old Marwan Fathi Hussein Harzallah passed away at Megiddo Prison. Authorities attribute his death to systemic medical negligence.
Harzallah was arrested on January 8, 2026, and remained in detention based on allegations of “incitement.” His health history was already precarious, as he suffered a gunshot wound from Israeli forces in 1995 that resulted in the amputation of one of his legs.
Despite his physical condition and status as a wounded detainee, he remained held in Megiddo. His son, Tahrir Harzallah, is also currently held under administrative detention.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club issued a joint statement identifying Harzallah as one of more than one hundred detainees who have died in Israeli prisons and camps since the onset of the current conflict. To date, the identities of 89 of these individuals have been officially confirmed.
The organizations assert that these deaths are the direct result of widespread torture, systematic starvation policies, medical crimes, and sexual assaults. They further describe a series of degradations and humiliations that have transformed detention centers into sites of extreme violence, marking this period as the deadliest in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement.
Harzallah’s death occurs during a push by Israeli authorities to formalize legislation that would permit the execution of Palestinian detainees. This move seeks to codify a policy of execution that critics argue is already being carried out extrajudicially.
With his passing, the documented number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in custody since 1967 has risen to 326. This figure only accounts for those whose identities have been verified by specialized institutions over the decades.
Many other victims, particularly detainees from Gaza, remain victims of enforced disappearance or summary field executions. Evidence for these systematic extrajudicial killings emerged through the condition of bodies and remains returned following the ceasefire.
The Commission and the Prisoners’ Club hold Israeli authorities fully responsible for Harzallah’s death and have renewed their calls for the international human rights system to take effective action. They urge the global community to hold leaders accountable for war crimes and to end the state of impunity surrounding the treatment of detainees.
Data available through the beginning of March indicates that approximately 50% of the total detainees in Israeli prisons are currently held without trial. These individuals are held either under arbitrary administrative detention orders or classified as “unlawful combatants.”
Currently, the total number of detainees exceeds 9,500, including 3,442 administrative detainees and 1,249 individuals categorized as “unlawful combatants.”
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