Judge: Palestinian teen apparently starved in detention before his death; body still being held by Israel

A Hadera Magistrate’s Court judge ruled that a Palestinian minor was “apparently starved” while in Israeli detention, where he collapsed and died last year.

“The fact that he was apparently starved cannot and should not be hidden,” Judge Ehud Kaplan writes in his decision.

That ruling from December, however, was barred from publication until this week following a petition by the Haaretz daily.

Despite Kaplan’s statement, he went on to argue in the ruling that no causal link could be established between the poor physical condition of 17-year-old Walid Ahmad and his death.

A resident of the central West Bank village of Silwad, Ahmad was arrested on allegations that he threw a Molotov cocktail, though he was never formally charged, and was instead held under a controversial practice known as administrative detention, which Israel only uses against Arabs and Palestinians, ever since the defense minister ended the practice for Jews last year.

After roughly six months in prison, Ahmad collapsed and was pronounced dead in March of last year. He also suffered from scabies.

Even though over a year has passed since his death, Israel still continues to hold on to his body. His family is petitioning Israeli courts for its release and says a rationale has never been given for why it is being held in the first place.