Palestinian Prisoners’ Society: Occupation Authorities Admit Palestinian Political Detainee Martyred in Custody Two Years Prior

August 9, 2026

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – After years of concealing his fate, Israeli occupation forces revealed on Sunday that 36-year-old Palestinian political detainee Ehab Mohammed Abdelqader Diab, was martyred while in custody nearly two years ago – in September 2024, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said in a statement.

The response from the occupation army follows previous responses by them containing false information indicating that Diab was not in their custody.

Diab had been abducted by occupation forces from the Gaza Strip in December 2023. He joins other Palestinian victims of the Israel’s occupation’s crime of enforced disappearance targeting residents of the Gaza Strip, amid the occupation’s continued withholding of information concerning the fate of many of them. This prevents their fate, places of detention, and detention conditions from being known, and prevents their families and legal representatives from learning the truth.

The PPS stressed that the occupation’s acknowledgment of Diab’s martyrdom after all this time, and after a series of responses that denied or failed to confirm his detention, represents a grave indication of the fate of dozens of detainees taken from the Gaza Strip who are believed to have been martyred inside the occupation’s military camps and prisons and remain subject to enforced disappearance. This is alongside others who remain missing, including people who were subjected to field executions, used as human shields, and then executed or whose whereabouts became unknown.

Palestinian Detainees from Gaza: An Open File Exposing the Structure of Crimes Within the Occupation System

The PPS stressed that the issue of detainees from the Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the genocide, has constituted one of the most prominent manifestations of the ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people, given the scale of crimes and violations revealed by testimonies from released detainees. These have included torture, starvation, humiliation, sexual assaults, denial of medical care, detention under harsh and inhumane conditions, and other violations targeting the detainees’ bodies and human dignity.

It noted that testimonies from detainees from Gaza, alongside testimonies from all prisoners, continue to reveal new patterns of torture and cruel and degrading treatment, reflecting not merely individual practices but an integrated system of policies that has been entrenched within the prison and detention system, with the participation of various levels of the occupation authorities.

The PPS pointed out that the continued emergence of these testimonies, despite nearly three years having passed since the beginning of the genocide, confirms that crimes against prisoners were not isolated or temporary incidents. Rather, they occurred within the framework of a systematic policy targeting Palestinians in their bodies, dignity, and consciousness, making the detention system one of the principal arenas of this crime.

The disclosure of Diab’s martyrdom comes at a time when new images and evidence of the torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in occupation prisons and camps continue to emerge. This includes photographs published by occupation soldiers showing detainees from the Gaza Strip in conditions degrading to human dignity, as well as scenes and measures published by Israel’s so-called National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that target the humiliation of Palestinian prisoners, in an explicit violation of their fundamental rights and human dignity.

Martyrdom of Prisoners: A Direct Result of Policies of Torture, Starvation, and Denial of Medical Treatment

The PPS stressed that Diab’s martyrdom, along with the killing of prisoners since the beginning of the genocide, cannot be separated from the conditions imposed on prisoners and detainees by the occupation system. Chief among these are torture, starvation, denial of medical treatment and healthcare, deprivation of basic hygiene, the deliberate provision of conditions conducive to the spread of diseases and epidemics, as well as ongoing violence and harsh detention conditions.

The PPS emphasized that these policies have led to a dangerous deterioration in prisoners’ health conditions and resulted in the martyrdom of dozens of them, as part of a policy of “slow killing” practiced by the occupation system against prisoners, as one aspect of the broader system of repression and ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

It added that what is being carried out against prisoners goes beyond targeting individuals to affect the Palestinian collective consciousness, by turning prisons into tools of collective “punishment,” subjugation, and humiliation, and by attempting to break Palestinian resolve, in line with policies targeting Palestinian existence and the right to freedom and dignity.

In this context, the PPS considered the passage of what is known as the “law for the execution of Palestinian prisoners” a clear expression of the move toward legislating killing, and an indication of the extent to which Israeli occupation policies toward Palestinian prisoners have transformed, amid the absence of effective international accountability.

 

 

328 Prisoners Have Been Killed in Occupation Prisons Since 1967

According to data documented by prisoners’ institutions, the martyrdom of Ehab Diab brings the number of identified martyred prisoners since the occupation of 1967 to 328 people, including 91 people since the beginning of the genocide. These are only those whose identities the institutions have been able to publicly announce, while the fate of dozens of detainees from the Gaza Strip remains unknown amid the continued crime of enforced disappearance against them.

Of the 91 prisoners killed since the beginning of the genocide, 53 were from the Gaza Strip. This brings the number of bodies of martyred prisoners held by the occupation authorities that have been documented to 99, including cases from both before and after the genocide.

The number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in occupation prisons stood at approximately 9,400 as of the beginning of August 2026, amid continuing arrest and arbitrary detention campaigns and the expansion of crimes and violations within the prison system.

The Occupation Bears Full Responsibility

The PPS held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of detainee Ehab Diab and for the fate of all detainees from the Gaza Strip regarding whom the occupation continues to conceal information and prevent disclosure of their conditions and places of detention.

The PPS renewed its call on the international human rights system to take effective and urgent action to ensure that the fate of all detainees from Gaza is revealed, to open independent investigations into the circumstances surrounding detainees’ deaths, to hold those responsible for crimes of torture, killing, and enforced disappearance accountable, and not to limit the response to documenting crimes and issuing condemnations.

It also called for an end to the state of impunity enjoyed by the Israeli occupation system for decades, which has been enabled, directly and indirectly, by political protection provided by the United States and other international powers. This has allowed the occupation to continue committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, culminating in the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, alongside systematic crimes against Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

The PPS stressed that the continued identification of new martyred prisoners months or years after their killings, while others remain of unknown fate, requires the international community to treat the issue of detainees from Gaza as an urgent humanitarian and human-rights matter, rather than a file to be postponed until after the genocide ends.

Determining their fate and holding those responsible for crimes committed against them accountable are an essential part of any serious path toward justice and accountability.

(ENDS)