Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Abdullah dies in Israeli custody after cancer diagnosis

A prominent Palestinian detainee has died in an Israeli hospital following the deterioration of his health caused by medical neglect, the Palestinian Commission of Prisoners Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society announced on Sunday.

Forty-nine-year-old Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, a native of the Jenin refugee camp, died at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Israel.  

Abdullah, also known as Abu Talal, was arrested on 1 February this year during a raid on the camp, where the Israeli army had carried out extensive incursions over the past year, in parallel with the war in Gaza.

His health seriously deteriorated following his detention. It was later revealed that he was suffering from cancer, the Commission said in its statement.

Israel repeatedly moved Abdullah between detention facilities, from Megiddo Prison to Gilboa Prison and later to the Ramla Prison clinic. Although medical tests confirmed that his cancer was at an advanced stage, Israeli authorities withheld proper treatment and only transferred him to the hospital one day before his death, the PPS said.

An image of Abdullah shared online during what appears to be from his final days showed him looking extremely gaunt and tired, indicating the seriousness of his ill health.

Abdullah was previously arrested by the Israeli army in 2002, during the Second Intifada, and spent two years in Israeli prison.

The Commission and the Club stated that Abdullah's death constitutes "another crime in a series of complex crimes carried out by the occupation regime as part of its policy of killing prisoners and detainees, and as part of the ongoing war of extermination against the Palestinian people".

Abdullah is the 79th known prisoner to have died in Israeli detention since the start of the war in Gaza over two years ago, on 7 October 2023. It is likely that other detainees have died while in Israeli jails and remain unaccounted for.

"This phase in the history of the prisoners' movement is witnessing the highest levels of bloodshed since 1967," the two NGOs said.

The Commission and the Club said it holds "the occupation authorities fully responsible" for the death of detainee Mahmoud Abdullah, and renewed their call to the international human rights community to take effective measures to hold Israeli leaders accountable "for the war crimes committed against prisoners and the Palestinian people".

Hamas also expressed sorrow over his death, and released a statement which read: "We mourn the prisoner Abu Talal, and warn of the extent of the danger of the catastrophic situation faced by our prisoners inside the occupation prisons, where they are deprived of the most basic necessities and rights, from food and drink and clothing, in addition to the medical neglect practiced by the occupation as a means of slow killing of the prisoners."