2 Gazan detainees die at Israeli prisons: NGO

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Two detainees from the Gaza Strip have died at Israeli prisons, a local nongovernmental organization said on Thursday.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society identified the two victims as Adnan al-Bursh, 50, a doctor, and Ismail Khader, 33.

Al-Bursh is the head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. He was arrested by the Israeli army last December as he was treating patients at Al-Adwa Hospital in northern Gaza.

The NGO said al-Bursh lost his life at the Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank on April 19 and his body is still withheld by the Israeli forces, while Khader died in custody and his body was released at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday.

It, however, did not provide a date for his death.

“The two victims died of torture and crimes committed against Gazan detainees,” the statement said.

Hundreds of Palestinians are believed to have been detained by the Israeli army amid a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip. No exact estimates are available about their figure.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,800 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala