By Awad Rajoob and Mohammad Sio
RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) - A Palestinian rights organization has warned of the deteriorating health of senior Hamas leader Mohammad Jamal al-Natsheh, who is being held in Israeli prisons, accusing authorities of “deliberate medical neglect and torture.”
In a statement Monday, the Hamas-affiliated Palestine Center for Prisoners' Studies said it fears that Israel may be attempting to “assassinate Natsheh (68) from Hebron” in the southern occupied West Bank through deliberate medical neglect, despite his critical health condition.
The center said al-Natsheh, who suffers from several illnesses, has experienced a “severe decline in his health” and now suffers from memory loss and disorientation, prompting Israeli authorities to transfer him to Ramla Prison Hospital in central Israel.
According to the statement, he was detained in March 2025 and subjected to a “brutal interrogation and physical torture” despite his age and health condition.
The center described al-Natsheh as one of Hebron’s prominent Islamic figures and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council elected on behalf of Hamas in 2006.
It added that he has been detained dozens of times by Israeli authorities, spending a total of 23 years in prison, most of them under administrative detention without charge, in an “act of political revenge.”
The rights group held the Israeli Prison Service and security authorities fully responsible for al-Natsheh’s life and called for “urgent international intervention” to save him.
Local authorities said that more than 1,056 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, around 10,300 wounded, and over 20,000 arrested, including 1,600 children, since the Gaza war began more than two years ago.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.