Palestinian rights groups have confirmed the deaths of three detainees from the Gaza Strip in Israeli prisons, adding to what they describe as a rapidly growing toll of Palestinians killed in custody during Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

The Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) announced on Thursday that the martyrs are 60-year-old Tayseer Saeed Al-Abed Sabbaba, 44-year-old Khamees Shukri Ashour, and 35-year-old Khalil Ahmad Khalil Haniyeh. Their deaths were confirmed by Israeli authorities, including through the Israeli rights group HaMoked.

According to the groups, Sabbaba died on December 31, 2024, two months after his arrest. Ashour died on February 8, 2024—just one day after being detained—while Haniyeh died on December 25, 2024, roughly one year after his arrest. All three men were fathers, leaving behind grieving families; Sabbaba had nine children, while Ashour and Haniyeh each had four.

Palestinian organizations say the deaths reflect a pattern of escalating abuses inside Israeli detention centers since the start of the genocide in Gaza. They cite widespread torture, starvation, denial of medical treatment, sexual violence, and deliberate degradation as systemic tools used against detainees.

Hamas mourned the deaths, condemning what it called Israel’s “barbaric” treatment of Palestinian prisoners. The movement called for urgent international intervention to force Israel to reveal the fate of forcibly disappeared Palestinians, return withheld bodies, and hold Israeli officials accountable for what it described as war crimes.

The group warned that ongoing torture, intentional starvation, fatal medical negligence, and humiliating conditions pose grave danger to thousands of detainees currently held by Israel. Hamas urged the United Nations and global human rights bodies to launch an international investigation into Israel’s practices, including extrajudicial killings and torture inside prisons and interrogation centers.

According to documentation by prisoner advocacy groups, more than 100 detainees have been killed in Israeli custody since the start of the current war. Of those, 84 have been identified so far, including 50 from Gaza. These deaths raise the total number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 to 321.

The Prisoners’ Authority and PPS held Israel fully responsible and criticized the continued impunity granted to it by the United States and other Western governments. They said this protection has emboldened Israel to expand its abuses without fear of accountability.

The report also highlighted that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees are imprisoned without trial under arbitrary administrative detention or classified as “unlawful combatants,” enabling Israel to hold them indefinitely. As of November, at least 3,368 Palestinians were held under administrative detention and 1,205 were labeled as “unlawful combatants,” in addition to the thousands detained from Gaza. (ILKHA)