JENIN, (PIC)
The administrative detainee, Mohyi Al-Din Fahmi Saeed Najm (60 years old) from Jenin, was martyred in the Israeli Soroka Hospital, adding to the list of martyrs of the prisoner movement who have died as a result of the organized crimes practiced by the Israeli occupation’s prison system in an unprecedented manner since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement on Sunday that Najm had been detained since August 8, 2023, and had spent a total of about 19 years in the Israeli prisons. He was married, a father of six, and a former detainee.
They noted that he had been subjected to a medical crime through complete denial of treatment, despite suffering from chronic health problems. A visit was conducted on March 10 at Negev prison, during which a significant deterioration in his health condition was revealed. He could no longer move independently and struggled severely to get around.
They added that after several interventions, he was transferred for medical tests. However, he was not informed of the details of his condition. In this context, the Commission and the Society confirmed that Israel committed a compound crime against him by keeping him under administrative detention for over two years, denying him medical care and treatment. He was one of hundreds of ill prisoners facing systematic slow death in Israeli prisons.
The Commission and the Society further announced that Negev prison, where Najm was held, has been and remains one of the most notorious prisons in terms of recorded atrocities—especially amid the continued spread of scabies. The prison authorities have turned this disease into a clear tool for killing more prisoners. The majority of martyr prisoners died due to torture and systematic medical crimes.
With Najm’s martyrdom, the number of identified prisoners and detainees who have died since the genocide began has risen to 66, including at least 40 from Gaza, making this period the deadliest in the history of the prisoner movement and for the Palestinian people.
This brings the total number of known martyrs of the prisoner movement since 1967 to 303, with the bodies of 75 martyrs still being held by Israel, including 64 who were martyred since the start of the genocide.
The Commission and the Society stressed that the rising number of martyr detainees will take a more dangerous turn as time passes, with thousands still being held under continuous exposure to systematic crimes—including torture, starvation, various forms of assault, medical neglect, sexual violence, and the intentional imposition of conditions leading to serious and contagious diseases, most notably scabies. This is in addition to unprecedented policies of deprivation and confiscation.
They concluded that the martyrdom of detainee Najm constitutes a new crime in the record of the Israeli system of brutality, which has employed all forms of crimes to kill detainees.
The Commission and the Society held Israel fully responsible for Najm’s death and renewed their call to the international human rights groups to take effective steps to hold Israeli leaders accountable for the war crimes they continue to commit against the Palestinian people. They called for sanctions that would isolate Israel internationally and restore the foundational role of the human rights system—ending its terrifying state of paralysis during the genocide and putting an end to the extraordinary impunity granted to Israel, which has placed it above accountability and justice.
