JENIN, (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society have announced the death of detainee Samir Muhammad Al-Rifai (53 years old), from the town of Rummanah/Jenin, in Israeli custody.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the two organizations said that Al-Rifai, who was married and a father of five, had been arrested by Israeli occupation forces from his home on July 10. He was scheduled to appear today for his first session at Salem military court.
They added that, according to medical reports provided by his family, Al-Rifai had been suffering from heart problems prior to his arrest and was in urgent need of consistent medical care.
With his death, the total number of known Palestinian detainees who have died since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli war of genocide almost two years ago has risen to 74, while many others remain forcibly disappeared, making this period one of the bloodiest in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement.
Since 1967, the number of documented prisoner martyrs has now reached 311.
The statement stressed that the rising number of detainee deaths has become an inevitable consequence, growing ever more dangerous as thousands remain held in Israeli prisons and are subjected constantly to systematic abuses, including torture, starvation, all forms of assault, medical crimes, sexual violence, and the deliberate imposition of conditions that lead to severe and contagious diseases, particularly scabies. This comes alongside unprecedented policies of deprivation.
The two organizations affirmed that the death of detainee Samir Al-Rifai constitutes a new crime added to the record of Israeli brutality, which seeks to kill prisoners by all means, a continuing aspect of the ongoing genocide.
They held Israel fully responsible for his death and reiterated their call to the international human rights organizations to take concrete steps toward holding Israeli leaders accountable for the war crimes they continue to commit against the Palestinian people. They called for the imposition of sanctions that would place Israel in clear international isolation and restore the original role of the international human rights system, which has been paralyzed during this genocidal war. They also demanded an end to the exceptional impunity that has allowed Israel to act as if it is above accountability, justice, and punishment.
