*Israeli Occupation Discloses Martyrdom of Three Palestinian Political Prisoners Abducted from Gaza* 


May 15, 2025 

Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association 

Ramallah, occupied Palestine: Palestinian prisoner defense and advocacy institutions received responses from the Israeli occupation army confirming the martyrdom of three political prisoners who were abducted from Gaza:

- Ayman Abdelhadi Qdeih (56): Arrested on October 7, 2023, and according to the occupation army he was martyred on October 12, 2023 — only days after his arrest. 
- Bilal Talal Salama (24): Arrested in March 2024 from Khan Younis, and according to the occupation army he was martyred on August 11, 2024, several months after his arrest. 
- Mohammed Ismail Al-Astal (46): Arrested on February 7, 2024, and according to the occupation army he was martyred on May 2, 2025. 

The responses received from the Israeli occupation army include no details about the circumstances of the detainees’ martyrdom, only the date of death. Severe physical assault, torture, denial of medical care, starvation and the outbreak of diseases due to denial of a hygienic environment, are the main ways in which Palestinian prisoners are being killed both directly and indirectly. 

This brings the number of identified martyred Palestinian political prisoners since the start of the genocide in October 2023 to 69 people, including 44 abducted from occupied Gaza. The total number of identified martyred Palestinian political prisoners since 1967 now stands at 306 people. It is worth noting that many Gaza detainees who were killed remain unidentified due to Israel’s continued withholding of their identities.

Prisoner institutions emphasized that the case of these three martyrs adds to the growing record of crimes committed by the Israeli system of brutality, which continues to operate through organized efforts to target and kill prisoners and detainees. These acts constitute yet another dimension of the ongoing genocide. The situation of Gaza detainees, in particular, stands as one of the most glaring examples of the unprecedented levels of violence and abuse inflicted upon them — including torture, starvation, medical neglect, and sexual violence.

In recent months, testimonies of Palestinians detained from Gaza have revealed some of the harshest and most detailed descriptions of the complex crimes committed against them on a systematic basis.

Thousands of prisoners in Israeli prisons and military camps are subject to systematic slow killing, including through deliberate neglect that leads to the spread of diseases. A specific example is the outbreak of scabies, which has contributed to the death of some prisoners and has become a direct method of torture and killing. The continuation of these systematic crimes means the number of martyred prisoners will keep rising.