RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The martyrdom of administrative detainee Mu’taz Nizam Al-Atrash, 21 years old, inside Ofer prison after about 11 months of detention without charge or trial, opened again the file of crimes and violations to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected to inside the Israeli prisons, amid human rights demands for an independent investigation revealing the circumstances of his martyrdom and holding those responsible accountable.
The Palestinian Center for the Defense of Prisoners called on Thursday for an urgent investigation into the circumstances of Al-Atrash’s martyrdom, holding the Israeli occupation forces and prison administration responsible for his martyrdom, demanding the disclosure of his medical file and full conditions of his detention, and opening prisons to independent oversight bodies.
Al-Atrash, who is from al-Khalil governorate, was martyred yesterday, Wednesday, inside Ofer prison, after spending nearly 11 months as an administrative detainee. The occupation forces arrested him in October 2025, keeping him behind bars based on the so-called secret file, without directing any charge against him or subjecting him to trial.
The center said that Al-Atrash entered the Israeli prisons as a young man at 20 years old, and was martyred at 21, warning that his martyrdom inside the prison sheds light again on the dangers threatening the lives of thousands of Palestinian prisoners under the severe conditions of detention and continuous violations.
The demand to reveal the circumstances of his martyrdom gains additional importance given his family’s testimony that a detainee who was with him in the same room and was released one day before his martyrdom informed them that Al-Atrash was in good condition, while the family confirmed that he did not suffer before his arrest from known diseases.
92 Palestinian prisoners martyred since the start of the genocide
The case of Al-Atrash does not represent an isolated incident from the transformations experienced in the Israeli prisons since the start of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian prisoner institutions document an unprecedented escalation in the numbers of martyrs inside prisons and detention centers, in parallel with accumulated testimonies about torture, starvation, medical neglect, abuse, humiliation, and deprivation of basic rights.
With the martyrdom of Al-Atrash, the number of martyrs of prisoners since the start of the genocidal war rose to 92 martyrs whose identities are known, including 53 detainees from the Gaza Strip, while the total documented number of martyrs of prisoners since 1967 rose to 329 martyrs, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).
The figures show the magnitude of the escalation in the numbers of martyrs inside Israeli prisons, as 92 prisoners and detainees were martyred since the start of the war, meaning that more than a quarter of the total documented martyrs of the prisoners since 1967 ascended during this period alone.
PPS confirms that the martyred prisoners ascended under a system of crimes and violations that include torture, starvation, medical crimes, sexual assaults, abuse, humiliation, and deprivation of the simplest human rights, at a time when the fate of a number of Gaza Strip detainees remains unknown due to the policy of enforced disappearance.
Testimonies and data collected by prisoner institutions indicate that detainees from the Gaza Strip have been subjected to severe violations since the start of the war, while the announced numbers of martyrs of the prisoners remain subject to increase with the continuation of ambiguity regarding the fate of a number of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons.
One hundred bodies detained
The issue does not end with the martyrdom of prisoners inside prisons, as the occupation authorities detain, according to PPS, the bodies of 100 martyred prisoners of known identity, including 89 who were martyred since the start of the genocidal war, in a continuation of the policy of detaining bodies and depriving families of retrieving them and burying their sons.
The martyrdom of Al-Atrash, an administrative detainee who was not charged and did not undergo a trial throughout his detention period, places the file of administrative detention and prison conditions again before international and human rights institutions, while the Palestinian Center for the Defense of Prisoners demands an independent investigation not limited to determining the circumstances of his martyrdom, but ensuring the disclosure of violations to which prisoners are subjected to and holding those responsible accountable.
Between a young man who entered detention at 20 years old and was martyred at 21, and a total reaching 92 martyrs in less than three years, the case of Al-Atrash reflects the widening crisis of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons and the transformation of detention conditions since the start of the war into an open human rights file subject to more victims and demands for investigation and accountability.
