Elderly Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli custody amid reports of torture

Occupied West Bank (Quds News Network)- Elderly Palestinian detainee Mustafa Abu Ara has died in Israeli detention amid reports of torture, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a statement on Friday.
The Commission said that the 63-year-old detainee died after being transferred to a hospital from the Ramon prison due to a severe deterioration in his health.
Abu Ara, a father of seven, was arrested in October and had been subjected to torture and deprived of medical treatment, according to the Palestinian body.
“Before his arrest, he was suffering from serious health problems and needed intensive medical follow-up. However, from the moment of his arrest, Sheikh Abu Ara, like all prisoners, has faced unprecedented crimes,” the statement reads.
Abu Ara, a resident of the town of Aqqaba in the Tubas District of the West Bank, was a leader in the Hamas movement and a former detainee in Israeli prisons. He had been arrested several times since 1990, with a cumulative detention period of about 12 years.
The Commission emphasized that Abu Ara, like all prisoners, faced unprecedented crimes and procedures since the beginning of the Israeli genocide war in Gaza on October 7. These included torture and starvation, as well as medical neglect, which were central factors leading to the killing of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and camps.
The Commission noted that Abu Ara was subjected to a slow killing process from the moment of his arrest, being deprived of necessary medical treatment.
They noted that this treatment is part of the broader war of extermination and systematic killing carried out by the occupation under political directives.
This includes public incitement from the Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has infamously suggested killing Palestinian prisoners by shooting them in the head to solve the problem of prison overcrowding.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have marked his death with marches and protests.