Autopsy on Palestinian who collapsed and died in Israeli prison last week said to reveal signs of starvation

The autopsy of a Palestinian minor who collapsed and died last week in Israel’s Megiddo Prison reportedly revealed signs of starvation and medical neglect.

The family of Waleed Ahmad tells the Haaretz daily that the 17-year-old was healthy, athletic and had no pre-existing conditions.

Ahmad’s death comes amid weeks of complaints by detainees at the Megiddo Prison of a bacterial infection that has been causing diarrhea and vomiting due to inadequate nutrition in the facility, Haaretz says.

Ahmad has been in prison since September of last year when he was arrested for allegedly throwing stones and a Molotov cocktail.

Six months later, after several brief court appearances during which no trial date was set, Walid collapsed on March 23 in a prison yard and struck his head, dying soon after, Palestinian officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners.

Prison authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by prison staff. But the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Israel’s prison service did not respond to questions about the cause of death. It said only that a 17-year-old from the West Bank had died in Megiddo Prison, a facility that has previously been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, “with his medical condition being kept confidential.” It said it investigates all deaths in detention.

The family believes Ahmad contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness — and can be fatal if left untreated.

The Palestinian Authority says Ahmad is the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention — and the 63rd Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza since the start of the war. Palestinian prisoner rights groups say that is about one-fifth of the roughly 300 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.