Two Palestinian organizations reported that an injured Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli hospital.
Zahir Radad, 19, from the Saida town of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, died at Israel’s Meyer Hospital, according to a statement issued by the Prisoner and Former Prisoners Affairs Authority and the Palestine Prisoners Club, part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The statement issued on Sunday said Raddad was arrested on July 23 after Israeli forces shot him and “used him as a human shield by sitting him in front of one of the Israeli military vehicles in the city during a military operation.”
With Radad’s death, the number of prisoners who will die in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023 has risen to 23, according to the statement.
According to news agency Xinhua, there has been no statement from Israel on Raddad’s death.
Since October 2023, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians after the movement launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli cities adjacent to the Strip, resulting in the death of some 1,200 people.
The statement further said that Radad was being held at Meir Hospital due to serious and unstable health conditions, having to rely on artificial respiration after undergoing multiple surgeries. Despite his critical condition, Israeli authorities kept him in custody until his death on Sunday.
Both Palestinian organizations condemned the Israeli occupation’s actions as a complex crime, ranging from the arrest and shooting of Raddad, to his use as a human shield, and his continued detention despite his critical health condition.
He described the incident as part of crimes of an unprecedented scale committed by Israel since the beginning of the genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza and the ongoing aggression against Palestinians throughout the occupied territories.
Tensions have been high in the West Bank since Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,400 Palestinians since last October.
At least 641 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured so far in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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