By Qais Abu Samra and Ahmed Asmar
RAMALLAH, Palestine/ Another Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip died in Israeli detention, prisoners’ affairs groups said on Thursday.
Amr Hatem Awda, 30, died at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel on Dec. 13, 2023, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
They said that Israeli authorities have confirmed Awda’s death in custody.
“Awda and his family members were arrested from their home during the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza in December 2023,” the statement said.
His death brought to 70 the number of Palestinians who died in Israeli detention since October 2023, including at least 44 from Gaza, according to Palestinian figures.
Palestinian authorities estimate that at least 307 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.
Over 10,100 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, including 39 women and 400 children. The figure does not include those arrested from Gaza, whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Palestinian rights groups document reports of torture and ill-treatment against Palestinians in Israeli jails, in particular in the Sde Teiman facility.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 53,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.