Death of 21-year-old raises alarm as rights groups document systematic torture in detention facilities, as Israel accelerates violence in occupied territory.
A young Palestinian man has died while being held in captivity by Israeli authorities, according to the Palestinian Authority, as Israeli military and settler violence across the occupied West Bank reaches levels unseen in decades, and its genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated.
Abdul Rahman al-Sabateen, 21, from Husan near Bethlehem, died at a Jerusalem medical facility on Tuesday night after being arrested by Israeli soldiers in late June, the PA said in a statement.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items
- list 1 of 3Hamas leader vows to curb Gaza attacks on Israel but rejects disarmament
- list 2 of 3Palestine is on a historic run in the Arab Cup, amidst Gaza devastation
- list 3 of 3Winter storm devastates Gaza tents amid deepening humanitarian crisis
end of list
His family reported seeing no signs of illness when they last visited him during a court appearance on November 25.
The death comes as Israeli forces arrested more than 100 Palestinians in dawn raids across the West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said.
The sweeps targeted cities including Nablus, where approximately 30 people were detained, and Silwad, where another 24 were taken into custody. Witnesses told the Wafa news agency that soldiers entered homes, confiscating belongings and jewellery during the operations.
Al-Sabateen’s death brings to at least 94 the number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli detention since October 2023, according to Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, which has documented what it describes as “systematic torture” in both military and prison facilities.
The organisation’s recent report details cases involving beatings, medical neglect and deliberate starvation.
The United Nations human rights office has separately confirmed at least 75 deaths during the same period, saying that Israeli authorities have “deliberately imposed conditions of detention that amount to torture or other forms of ill-treatment”.
Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, while settler attacks, often with the military’s backing, have surged dramatically and with impunity.
More than 700 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli settlers so far this year, double the total for all of 2024, according to UN data. October alone saw 264 such attacks, the highest monthly figure since tracking began in 2006.
The violence has coincided with an aggressive illegal settlement expansion drive. On Wednesday, Israeli authorities approved 764 new housing units in three West Bank settlements, a move Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who openly rejects a two-state solution – described as a continuation of “the revolution”.
Far-right ministers in Israel have been pushing for the total annexation of the occupied territory, a move the United States, European, and Arab and Muslim nations all oppose.
Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Reuters that “the settlements are illegal” and run counter to “all the resolutions of international legitimacy”.
Smotrich announced approval for 764 new housing units on Wednesday, part of what Israeli media describes as a 2.7 billion-shekel ($836m) five-year plan to entrench Israeli control over the territory.
Since late 2022, more than 51,000 settlement units have been authorised.
Human Rights Watch reported last month that Israeli forces forcibly displaced 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps earlier this year, operations the organisation characterised as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, called it the “second largest – after Gaza – displacement of Palestinians since 1967,” likening it to a second Nakba, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced during Israel’s founding in 1948.
A psychologist working with Doctors Without Borders and speaking anonymously in Hebron described the mounting psychological toll on Palestinians on Wednesday, saying they are “preparing themselves for loss” rather than planning for the future.
The mental health worker said patients commonly express the thought: “They started in Gaza, then moved to the north of the West Bank – now it’s just a matter of time until it’s our turn.”
The Wafa news agency reported that around 190 settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, forcefully entered the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, part of a pattern of increasingly frequent incursions in recent months, some of which far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally joined.
Under a decades-old status-quo arrangement, only Muslims are permitted to worship at the site, while Jews—who refer to the complex as the Temple Mount—are allowed to visit but not pray.
