Palestinian child died of starvation under Israeli detention, autopsy finds
The first Palestinian child to die under Israeli detention was starved to death, an autopsy indicates.
Walid Khalid Abdullah Ahmad, 17, died at the end of March from what were likely signs of "starvation, dehydration from colitis-induced diarrhoea, and infectious complications all compounded by prolonged malnutrition and denial of life-saving medical intervention", Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has reported.
Post-mortem examination suggests Ahmad suffered from extreme body muscle and fat wasting, as shown by a sunken abdomen, a doctor who attended the autopsy on behalf of Ahmad's family has said.
"We were informed of his death through the Palestinian liaison office on March 24. We were surprised and shocked by the news because he had not been suffering from any illness. A court hearing was scheduled for mid-April," Ahmad's father, Khaled Al-Basha told Middle East Eye.
The Palestinian Authority says he is the first child to ever die under Israeli detention, and the 63rd Palestinian to die in Israeli prisons since the war on Gaza started in October 2023.
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While Israel has long been criticised for its brutal treatment of Palestinian prisoners, conditions have significantly worsened during the Gaza war.
Detainees have often described being subjected to beatings, torture, sexual violence, overcrowding, lack of medical care, disease outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.
While prison authorities deny any systemic abuse, Israel's national security ministry, which oversees prisons and has recently been run by far-right Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben Gvir, has often boasted of reducing the conditions of Palestinian detainees "to the minimum required by law".
Ahmad was being held without charge at the Megiddo Prison, a facility that has previously been accused of abusing Palestinians.
He had scabies rashes on both legs and his groin, as well as abrasions on his nose, chest and right hip.
The autopsy also shows significant air collections in both Ahmad's chest and abdominal cavities, which DCIP says was "likely caused by blunt trauma", along with signs of inflammation that could be linked to an infection.
Beatings at the hands of Israeli guards might be behind the presence of edema and congestion in his large intestine, which are consistent with traumatic injury.
The examination, conducted at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, found that Ahmad suffered from "extreme, likely prolonged malnutrition" and that he possibly suffered from an inflamed colon, causing frequent diarrhoea and dehydration. A cut was also found on his neck.
An athlete
Ahmad was in his final year of school and had been in good health.
He was athletic, playing professionally for his hometown football team and harbouring ambitions to play for the Palestinian national team, but Israeli barriers prevented him from doing so.
Al-Basha told MEE that the Israeli army had raided their home in the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, on 30 September, destroying its contents and breaking its windows. They then searched their ID cards and informed Ahmad that he was under arrest.
The soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him in front of his family and prevented him from getting dressed, despite his family's pleas. They took him away, and his family heard nothing of him until his first trial on 8 October. At that point, they were only able to see him via video screen.
In a statement, an Israeli prison service said that an investigation was underway.
"A 17-year-old security detainee from Megiddo prison, from the West Bank area, passed away yesterday in the prison, with his medical condition being under privacy protection," it said. "An investigation is still ongoing."
More than 14,000 Palestinians are believed to have been arrested in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces since the start of the war on Gaza.
Most are held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of people based on unrevealed evidence.
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