The Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli prison, amid reports of widespread systematic torture. 

Palestinian detainee Khaled al-Shawish, 53, has died in the Israeli prison of Nafha, the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced Wednesday. 

This brings the total number of prisoners and detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since October 7 to nine.

Al-Shawish, who is originally from Al-Fara’a camp, north of Tubas, has been detained since May 28, 2007, and was sentenced to 11 life sentences.

He was one of the chronically ill patients held in Israeli jails. He was arrested in 1993 after being kidnapped by an undercover Israeli special force. He spent nearly four years in the occupation prisons, without being charged.  

PPS said that al-Shawish was suffering from constant pain in his body and bone fractures.

🇵🇸| A Palestinian martyr in demon occupation jails this morning. 🇵🇸💔

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: We mourn one of our leaders, the martyr Khaled Al-Shawish, who rose as a result of deliberate medical negligence in the occupation prisons after suffering bitterly with illness. He… pic.twitter.com/NYtCGSZFtV

— Her name is Palestine 🇵🇸😇 (@ayshaaa_48) February 21, 2024

Re-arrested 

Al-Shawish was released in 1996.  He was seriously injured after being shot by occupation live bullets in 2001, which led to his paralysis. Six years after his injury, the occupation forces arrested him again and sentenced him to 11 life imprisonment.

PPS and the Commission said in a joint statement that 246 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prison since the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem in 1967.

Since October 7, Israeli prison authorities, per directives from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have intensified pressures on Palestinian prisoners. 

Human rights organizations say that nearly 7,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned since October 7, and that thousands are subjected to regular torture, beatings, isolation, and denial of basic rights. 

His Life

Al-Shawish was born on January 14, 1971. 

He studied in the schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) in Al-Fara’a camp. 

Captive Khaled Al-Shawish
Arrested in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of belonging to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and killing 8 Israelis in separate ambushes. #الاسير_مش_رقم #IsraeliCrimes pic.twitter.com/3eLElbenpn

— أَنوار 𓂆 (@klaib94) April 4, 2022

He is married and has four children, one of whom is Qutaiba who spent five and a half years in occupation prisons, while his brother Musa was killed by Israeli forces in 1992. 

His brother Nasser was sentenced to life imprisonment five times, while his brother Mohammad spent 11 years in Israeli prison.

(WAFA, PC)