Musab Adili, a 20-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank, died in an Israeli prison three days before he was set to be released.

Adili’s family says they do not know how the young man died, and they received a report two weeks ago that he was in good health. Sixty-four Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons over the past 18 months.

For most of Adili’s term, he was held in the infamous Megiddo Prison. “Detainees and prisoners at Megiddo Prison in northern Israel have reported several cases of harsh violence and abuse carried out by prison wardens,” Haaretz reported in December 2023. The torture included “guards kicking, punching, hitting their testicles, and humiliating prisoners. Some testified that a prisoner who was beaten died of his injuries.”

Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad died in the Megiddo dungeon in March. His family said he was a healthy high schooler when he was arrested in September. An autopsy showed he was subjected to starvation and beatings.

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, numerous reports have surfaced showing that Israel is conducting widespread torture, beatings, sexual abuse, medical neglect, dehumanization, and deprivation against Palestinian detainees. Israeli forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians, and many are held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Adili’s family said he was transferred to the Naqab Prison about a month ago. A UN report from August 2024 explained that “grave human rights violations” had been recorded at Naqab, including “the widespread and systematic use of physical and psychological torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment, medical neglect, and starvation policies.”

It adds, “This latest visit further confirms what Al Mezan and other Palestinian human rights organizations have been saying for months: the torture and abuse of Gaza prisoners was not isolated to Sde Teiman, but is present in all Israeli prisons and detention centers.”

Sde Teiman has become one of the most notorious and well-known Israeli detention centers. In 2024, an Israeli doctor wrote a letter explaining how Palestinian prisoners were undergoing regular amputations due to the harsh conditions and denied medical treatment.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has bragged about the deplorable conditions that Palestinians face in the prisons he oversees. He has called on executing detainees to deal with prison overcrowding, as Israel has rounded up large numbers of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank over the past 18 months.