AhlulBayt News Agency: The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, along with the Palestinian Prisoner Society, announced on Thursday the death of 53-year-old detainee Samir Muhammad Al-Rifai, a resident of Rummanah near Jenin, while in Israeli custody.
In a joint statement, the groups said Al-Rifai, a married father of five, was arrested from his home by Israeli occupation forces on July 10 and was scheduled to attend his first hearing at Salem military court today.
They added that medical documents provided by his family show Al-Rifai had suffered from chronic heart issues prior to his detention and urgently required ongoing medical care.
His death raises the number of Palestinians known to have died in Israeli detention since the start of the ongoing war — nearly two years ago — to 74. Many others remain forcibly disappeared, marking this period as one of the deadliest in the history of Palestinian prisoners.
According to documented records, the number of Palestinians who have martyred in Israeli jails since 1967 has now reached 311.
The statement warned that the escalation in detainee deaths is becoming inevitable, especially as thousands remain imprisoned under harsh conditions and are regularly subjected to systematic violations, including torture, starvation, assault, denial of medical care, sexual abuse, and exposure to communicable diseases like scabies. These occur alongside extreme deprivation policies.
The two organizations described the death of Samir Al-Rifai as another deliberate crime within Israel’s expanding record of targeting detainees as part of its continued war of extermination.
They held the Israeli regime fully accountable and urged international human rights bodies to take serious action toward prosecuting Israeli officials for war crimes. The groups also called for sanctions, international isolation of Israel, and the restoration of a functioning global human rights system, accusing the international community of paralysis and enabling impunity.
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