Palestinian Prisoner Martyrs Since the Genocidal War | 92 Killed in Occupation Prisons and Camps

Since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Zionist occupation’s prisons and camps have become what prisoners’ organisations call the deadliest period in the history of the prisoner movement. By September 2026 the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club had announced 92 identified martyrs among prisoners and detainees, 53 of them Gaza detainees, while the fate of other Gaza detainees remains unknown because of the crime of enforced disappearance.^[1][2]

This is the final article in Palestinuna’s series on “The martyrs of the prisoner movement.” Unlike earlier periods, there is no complete published list of this period’s martyrs, because the occupation conceals their identities and delays announcing their deaths, sometimes acknowledging them only months later. The table in this article therefore includes only names that have been announced and documented in Arab sources. ^[3][4]

Contents

1. In numbers
2. The rising toll
3. How prisoners are killed
4. Gaza’s detainees: death in the shadows
5. Announced names
6. The bodies
7. Between the accounts
8. Timeline
9. Frequently asked questions about prisoner martyrs since the genocidal war

In numbers

^[1][5]

The rising toll

Prisoners’ organisations’ figures show how the toll climbed month after month:

^{[6][7][8][3][9][4][10][2][1]}

How prisoners are killed

Prisoners’ organisations attribute these deaths to a system of crimes: torture, starvation, medical crimes, sexual assault and humiliation. They say they hold testimonies about dozens of detainees executed in the field. ^[1]

Beaten to death: Thaer Abu Asab of Qalqilya and Abd al-Rahman Mar’i of Qarawat Bani Hassan died in November 2023 after severe beatings, according to prisoners’ testimony, during what jailers call “count or security check procedures.” ^[11][6]

Starvation: on 24 March 2025 the child Walid Khaled Ahmad, 17, of Silwad, died in Megiddo prison; autopsy reports found he had been “deliberately starved to death,” and his body is still withheld. ^[12]

Torture under interrogation: Dr Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital, died in Ofer prison on 19 April 2024 after being seized from al-Awda Hospital; prisoners’ organisations called his death a “deliberate assassination.” In December 2024 Muhammad Walid Ali of Nur Shams camp died in the al-Jalameh interrogation centre a week after his arrest, with signs of torture. ^[8][9]

Medical neglect: Walid Daqqa of Baqa al-Gharbiyye died on 7 April 2024 after 38 years in captivity, suffering from a rare cancer; and Marwan Harzallah of al-Ein camp in Nablus, a leg amputee, died in Megiddo prison in March 2026 after being denied treatment. ^[13][2]

Gaza’s detainees: death in the shadows

Gaza’s detainees are held in military camps, and the occupation has classified more than a thousand of them as “unlawful combatants,” so that their whereabouts are unknown and visits are barred. Their families learn of their martyrdom only when the occupation army replies to organisations’ inquiries, giving only a date of death without details. In October 2024 the names of 15 Gaza detainee martyrs were announced at once, and in May 2025 three more, among them Ayman Qdeih, 56, who was arrested on 7 October 2023 and died five days later. ^[3][4][5]

Two families asked that their sons’ names not be published, for private reasons, so they were announced by initials only. After almost two years of concealing his fate, the occupation acknowledged the martyrdom of Ihab Diab, 36, of Gaza, arrested in December 2023, claiming he had been ill – which his family denied. ^[3][14]

Announced names

The table lists 34 of this period’s martyrs whose names have been announced and documented in the sources cited, in order of date of martyrdom. It is not a complete list: the announced toll stands at 92 identified martyrs.

The bodies

The occupation does not stop at killing prisoners; it withholds their bodies. Of the 100 identified prisoner-movement martyrs whose bodies it holds, 89 died after the war began, among them Dr Adnan al-Bursh and the child Walid Ahmad. They are among at least 799 Palestinian bodies withheld. ^{[1][8][12][18]}

Between the accounts

The overall toll: rights groups counted 100 prisoner martyrs from the start of the war to the end of 2025, while the Prisoners’ Club announced 92 identified martyrs by September 2026. The difference most likely reflects those whose identities have not been disclosed or whose families asked that they not be named. ^[5][1]

Abd al-Rahman Mar’i: Al-Quds newspaper names him “Ahmad Muhammad Mar’i,” 33, of Qarawat Bani Hassan, while the prisoners’ organisations’ annual report names him “Abd al-Rahman Mar’i.” ^[6][11]

Different figures in one report: Ahram Online, citing the Prisoners’ Club in March 2026, gives 89 martyrs since the war, then 86 elsewhere. ^[2]

The occupation’s accounts: the occupation army gives only a date of death, or claims illness, as with Ihab Diab, which families deny. ^[4][14]

Timeline

Frequently asked questions about prisoner martyrs since the genocidal war

How many prisoners have died since the genocidal war began?

92 identified martyrs by September 2026, 53 of them Gaza detainees, not counting those whose fate is still unknown. ^[1]

Why is there no complete list of names?

Because the occupation conceals the identities of many Gaza detainees, delays announcing their deaths, and gives only a date of death. ^[4][1]

Who is the youngest martyr on this list?

The child Walid Khaled Ahmad, 17, of Silwad, who died of starvation in Megiddo prison in March 2025. ^[12]

How many bodies of prisoners who died since the war does the occupation hold?

89, of the 100 identified prisoner-movement martyrs whose bodies it holds. ^[1]

Sources and references

1. Qatar News Agency, “Palestinian Prisoners’ Club: prisoner martyrs rise to 92 since October 2023,” 17 September 2026 (in Arabic).
2. Ahram Online, “89 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since 7 October 2023: PPS,” March 2026.
3. WAFA, “Names of 15 Gaza detainee martyrs in occupation camps announced,” 6 October 2024 (in Arabic).
4. Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, “Prisoners’ organisations: names of three martyrs among Gaza detainees announced,” 15 May 2025 (in Arabic).
5. Al Jazeera Net, “Rights groups: 7,000 arrested and 32 prisoners martyred in Israeli prisons in 2025,” 31 December 2025 (in Arabic).
6. Al-Quds newspaper, on the martyrdom of prisoner Thaer Abu Asab in the Negev prison, 19 November 2023 (in Arabic).
7. Al Jazeera Net, “Palestinian prisoner’s death raises toll in occupation prisons to 11 since the Al-Aqsa Flood,” 29 February 2024 (in Arabic).
8. Arabi Post, “Who was Dr Adnan al-Bursh, martyred under torture in occupation prisons?” 2 May 2024 (in Arabic).
9. Al Jazeera Net, “Palestinian prisoner martyred in an Israeli interrogation centre, with signs of torture,” 4 December 2024 (in Arabic).
10. Al Jazeera Net, “Palestinian prisoner martyred inside Israel’s Megiddo prison,” 3 August 2025 (in Arabic).
11. Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, Prisoners’ Club and Addameer, annual report for 2024 (via the Institute for Palestine Studies) (in Arabic).
12. Al Jazeera Net, “A Brazilian passport and football talent: the story of a flame put out by hunger in Israel’s prisons,” 6 April 2026 (in Arabic).
13. Al Jazeera Net, “Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa martyred after 38 years in Israeli prisons,” 7 April 2024 (in Arabic).
14. Qatar News Agency, “Palestinian martyrs in occupation prisons rise to 328,” 9 August 2026 (in Arabic).
15. Al Jazeera Net, “Israeli channel: jailers beat a Palestinian prisoner to death,” 21 December 2023 (in Arabic).
16. Arabi Post, “A Palestinian prisoner from the Naqab is martyred,” 16 March 2024 (in Arabic).
17. Asharq News, “Two Palestinian prisoners die in Israeli prisons,” 15 November 2024 (in Arabic).
18. Euronews Arabic, “Palestinian report: Israel is holding the bodies of at least 799 people,” 28 August 2026.