Palestinian teenager who died in Israeli prison showed signs of
starvation, medical report says
[April 07, 2025]
By SAM MEDNICK
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Starvation was likely the leading cause of death
for a Palestinian teenager who died in an Israeli prison, according to
an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy.
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without
being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition, and also showed signs
of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr.
Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy, conducted by Israeli experts,
at the request of the boy's family.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Solomon's report from the
family. It did not conclude a cause of death, but said Ahmad was in a
state of extreme weight loss and muscle wasting. It also noted that
Ahmad had complained to the prison of inadequate food since at least
December, citing reports from the prison medical clinic.
Ahmad died last month after collapsing in Megiddo Prison and striking
his head, Palestinian officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from
other prisoners. Israel’s prison service said a team was appointed to
investigate Ahmad’s death and its findings would be sent to the
authorized authorities.
Ahmad is the youngest Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli prison
since the start of the Gaza war, according to Physicians for Human
Rights Israel, which has documented Palestinian prisoner deaths. He was
taken into custody from his home in the occupied West Bank during a
pre-dawn raid in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers,
his family said.
The autopsy was conducted on March 27 at Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic
Institute, which has not released a report of its findings and did not
respond to requests for comment. The Ahmad family's lawyer, Nadia Daqqa,
confirmed Solomon, a gastrointestinal surgeon, was granted permission to
observe the autopsy by an Israeli civil court.
Widespread abuse in Israeli prisons, rights groups say
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention
facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after
Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. The
Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72
Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died
since the beginning of the war. Israel often holds on to bodies of dead
Palestinians, citing security grounds or for political leverage.
Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war,
former detainees have told the AP. They described beatings, severe
overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor
sanitary conditions.
Megiddo Prison, a maximum security facility where many Palestinian
detainees, including teens, are held without charge, is regarded as one
of the harshest, said Naji Abbas, head of the Prisoners and Detainees
Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
Israel’s prison service said it operates according to the law and all
prisoners are given basic rights.
Ahmad’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his
requests to visit his client in prison, but three prisoners held there
told him Ahmad suffered from severe diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and
dizziness before he died. They suspected it was caused by dirty water,
as well as cheese and yogurt prison guards brought in the morning and
that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan, the lawyer said.
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Khalid Ahmad holds a poster of his 17-year-old son, Waleed, who died
in an Israeli prison, that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner
Martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous Martyrs," in the West
Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah Wednesday, March 26,
2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Malnourished and frail
According to Dr. Solomon's report the autopsy showed that Ahmed
likely suffered from inflammation of the large intestine, a
condition known as colitis that can cause frequent diarrhea and can
in some cases contribute to death.
But medical experts said colitis usually doesn’t cause death in
young patients and was likely exacerbated by severe malnutrition.
“He suffered from starvation that led to severe malnutrition and in
combination with untreated colitis that caused dehydration and
electrolyte levels disturbances in his blood which can cause heart
rate abnormalities and death,” said Dr. Lina Qasem Hassan, the head
of the board for Physicians for Human Rights Israel who reviewed the
report at the request of the AP.
She said the findings indicated medical neglect, exacerbated by
Ahmad’s inability to fight disease or infection because of how
malnourished and frail he was.
Dr. Arne Stray-Pedersen, a professor of forensic medicine at the
University of Oslo in Norway who was not involved in the autopsy,
said the report suggests there was a period of prolonged
malnutrition and sickness lasting at least a few weeks or months.
“Based on the report, I interpret the underlying cause of death to
be emaciation-wasting,” he said.
Scabies rashes were also noted on his legs and genital area, the
report said. There was also air between his lungs that expanded into
his neck and back, it said, which can cause infection. Air can come
from small tears in the lungs, which can occur from severe vomiting
or coughing, it said.
Ahmad’s family said he was a healthy high schooler who enjoyed
playing soccer before he was taken into custody. His father, Khalid
Ahmad, said his son sat through four brief court hearings by
videoconference, and he noticed at one of them, in February, that
his son appeared to be in poor health.
The family hasn’t yet received a death certificate from Israel, the
elder Ahmad said Friday, and are hoping Dr. Solomon's report will
help bring his son's body home.
“We will demand our son’s body for burial," he said “What is
happening in Israeli prisons is a real tragedy, as there is no value
for life.”
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AP reporter Jalal Bwaitel contributed from Ramallah, West Bank.
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