Palestinian teenager who died in Israeli prison showed signs of starvation, medical report says

Los Angeles Times

07-04-2025

TEL AVIV — Starvation was probably the leading cause of death for a Palestinian teenager who died in an Israeli prison, according to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy.
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition, and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy, conducted by Israeli experts, at the request of the boy's family.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Solomon's report from the family. It did not conclude a cause of death, but said Walid was in a state of extreme weight loss and muscle wasting. It also noted that Walid had complained to the prison of inadequate food since at least December, citing reports from the prison medical clinic.
Walid died last month after collapsing in Megiddo prison and striking his head, Palestinian officials said, citing accounts from other prisoners. Israel's prison service said that a team was appointed to investigate Walid's death and that its findings would be sent to authorities.
Walid is the youngest Palestinian to die in an Israeli prison since the start of the Gaza war, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which has documented Palestinian prisoner deaths. He was taken into custody from his home in the occupied West Bank during a predawn raid in September, accused of throwing stones at soldiers, his family said.
The autopsy was conducted March 27 at Israel's Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which has not released a report of its findings and did not respond to requests for comment. The Ahmad family's lawyer, Nadia Daqqa, confirmed that Solomon, a gastrointestinal surgeon, was granted permission to observe the autopsy by an Israeli civil court.
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died since the beginning of the war. Israel often holds on to bodies of dead Palestinians, citing security grounds or for political leverage.
Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war, former detainees have told the AP. They described beatings, severe overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.
Megiddo prison, a maximum-security facility where many Palestinian detainees, including teens, are held without charge, is regarded as one of the harshest, said Naji Abbas, head of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
Israel's prison service said that it operates according to the law and that all prisoners are given basic rights.
Walid's lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his requests to visit his client in prison, but three prisoners held there told him Walid suffered from severe diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness before he died. They suspected it was caused by dirty water, as well as cheese and yogurt prison guards brought in the morning that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the lawyer said.
According to Dr. Solomon's report, the autopsy showed that Walid probably suffered from inflammation of the large intestine, a condition known as colitis that can cause frequent diarrhea and in some cases can contribute to death.
But medical experts said colitis usually doesn't cause death in young patients and was probably exacerbated by severe malnutrition.
'He suffered from starvation that led to severe malnutrition and in combination with untreated colitis that caused dehydration and electrolyte levels disturbances in his blood, which can cause heart rate abnormalities and death,' said Dr. Lina Qasem Hassan, the head of the board for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel who reviewed the report at the request of the AP.
She said the findings indicated medical neglect, exacerbated by Walid's inability to fight disease or infection because of how malnourished and frail he was.
Dr. Arne Stray-Pedersen, a professor of forensic medicine at the University of Oslo in Norway who was not involved in the autopsy, said the report suggests there was a period of prolonged malnutrition and sickness lasting at least a few weeks or months. 'Based on the report, I interpret the underlying cause of death to be emaciation-wasting,' he said.
Scabies rashes were also noted on Walid's legs and genital area, the report said. There was air between his lungs that expanded into his neck and back, it said, which can cause infection. Air can come from small tears in the lungs, which can occur from severe vomiting or coughing, it said.
Walid's family said he was a healthy high school student who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken into custody. His father, Khalid Ahmad, said his son sat through four brief court hearings by videoconference, and he noticed at one of them, in February, that Walid appeared to be in poor health.
The family hasn't yet received a death certificate from Israel, Ahmad said Friday, and is hoping Solomon's report will help bring his son's body home.
'We will demand our son's body for burial,' he said. 'What is happening in Israeli prisons is a real tragedy, as there is no value for life.'
Mednick writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.