A leader of the local Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the occupied West Bank has died in custody in Israel due to rapidly deteriorating health, a Palestinian Authority official said today.

Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, 63, died after being transferred to a hospital from southern Israel’s Ramon prison, the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs said.

“Prior to his arrest, he was suffering from serious health problems and required intensive medical attention. However, from the moment of his arrest, Sheikh Abu Ara suffered unprecedented crimes, like all prisoners (…) since the beginning of the war of extermination,” the commission complained.

Abu Ara, who was arrested in October, was tortured and denied medical treatment, according to the same source.

The Israeli authorities have not reacted to the complaint.

At least 18 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Union said last month.

The war broke out when Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented raid on southern Israel that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 111 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, but 39 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.

In retaliation, Israel has vowed to wipe out the Palestinian Islamist movement, in power in the enclave since 2007, which it labels a terrorist organization, as do the US and the EU. The large-scale military operations it has carried out since then have killed as many as stage at least 39,175 people, most of them civilians, according to the latest health ministry figures in the small Palestinian enclave.