Prisoners' Authority and Palestinian Prison Club: Martyrdom of detainee Sayeel Abu Nasr from Gaza in Israeli prisons

SadaNews - The Authority for Prisoners and Released Prisoners and the Palestinian Prison Club announced the martyrdom of detainee Sayeel Rajab Abu Nasr (60 years old) from Gaza on 21/1/2025. He had been detained in Israeli prisons since November 2023.

The Authority and the Prison Club stated in a joint statement that the issue of Gaza detainees continues to represent one of the most significant issues reflecting an unprecedented level of crimes and atrocities committed against them, including torture, starvation, medical crimes, and sexual assaults. Over the past months, testimonies from detainees in Gaza have been the harshest and most detailed regarding the complex crimes perpetrated against them in real-time. Today, the case of martyr Abu Nasr is added to the record of the Israeli brutal system, which operates around the clock through a series of organized crimes aimed at killing prisoners and detainees, manifesting these crimes as another face of ongoing genocide and an extension of it.

The Authority and the Club added that with the martyrdom of detainee Abu Nasr, the number of martyrs from prisoners and detainees who have died since the genocide reached at least (75), including (46) detainees from Gaza, with only their identities known. The number of documented martyrs from the prisoners’ movement since 1967 has risen to (312), with their identities also known, marking this phase as the bloodiest in the history of the prisoners’ movement and the most severe regarding detention conditions.

The Authority and the Club clarified that the announcement about martyrs from Gaza detainees is based on responses received by organizations from the occupation army regarding the mechanism followed to investigate Gaza detainees. This narrative remains restricted to the responses of the occupation army in light of the continued detention of martyr bodies and the lack of disclosure about the circumstances of their martyrdom. It is noteworthy that the army has repeatedly attempted to manipulate these responses by providing conflicting answers to organizations. Some organizations have approached the court to obtain a response that clarifies the fate of the detainees. It is emphasized that torture crimes have been the central reason for the martyrdom of the vast majority of martyrs following the genocide, alongside escalating medical crimes, starvation, and rape crimes.

The Authority and the Club stressed that the rate of increase in the number of martyrs among prisoners and detainees is continuously rising, amid escalating risks to the fate of thousands of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons, and their continuous exposure to systematic crimes primarily including torture, starvation, assaults of all forms, medical crimes, sexual assaults, and the deliberate imposition of conditions leading to serious and contagious diseases, notably (scabies), in addition to unprecedented levels of pillaging and deprivation.

The organizations held the occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of detainee Abu Nasr, and reiterated their demand for the international human rights system to open an impartial international investigation into the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners and detainees since the beginning of the genocide, and to proceed with effective decisions to hold the commanders of the occupation accountable for the war crimes they continue to commit against our people, and to enforce sanctions on the occupation that would place it in a clear state of international isolation, restoring the fundamental role of the human rights system that was established for, and putting an end to the terrifying state of impotence that has afflicted it during the genocide, and ending the exceptional immunity that the world has granted to the occupation state as if it were above accountability, prosecution, and punishment.

It is noteworthy that the total number of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons reached over (10,800) prisoners by the beginning of July 2025, including only those held in prisons managed by the occupation. This number does not include detainees held in camps operated by the occupation army. Among the prisoners, there are (48) female prisoners, more than (440) children, more than (3,600) administrative detainees, and (2,454) detainees from Gaza classified by the occupation prison administration as "unlawful combatants."

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