The Israeli prison service announced yesterday Monday the death of a 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner, a member of Fatah, the faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, adding that it was “investigating” the circumstances under which he died.

The prisoner, whose identity has not been released, died at Megiddo prison in northern Israel, the agency said in a statement.

Originally from Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, this Fatah member was arrested in June 2022 and sentenced to serve a prison term for “offenses” related to Israeli national security.

“As in any case of this nature, the circumstances (of his death) will be investigated,” the agency said in a statement.

The Prisoners’ Committee, an organization under the Palestinian Authority, confirmed the prisoner’s death, adding that it was trying to gather more details about the case.

On December 21, Israeli police announced that around 20 detention center guards had been questioned before being released “with limited conditions” as part of an investigation into the death of a Palestinian prisoner after he was allegedly beaten.

According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Thayer Abu Assab, 38, from the town of Qalqilya in the northern sector of the occupied West Bank, died in November after being beaten by officials at the southern Israeli prison where he was being held.

The public committee against torture in Israel (DECBI) assessed that the case raises “serious suspicions about the transformation of the Israeli prison service from a professional organization into a vindictive and punitive force”.

“Six prisoners have now died in prison (…) All cases of ill-treatment and deaths must be immediately investigated,” he added.

When the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, the Israeli authorities tightened the conditions of detention of Palestinian prisoners: they are no longer allowed to leave the cells, nor buy from the canteens, the sockets in the cells have been cut off, surprise searches inside in cells became more frequent.

According to figures from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Union, an organization that defends their rights, there were 7,800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons at the beginning of December.