PA says Gazan man arrested in December 2024 has died in Israeli prison

Israel Prisons Service officers prepare inmates for release as part of a hostage deal at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, on February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel Prisons Service officers prepare inmates for release as part of a hostage deal at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, on February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A 59-year-old Gazan medic has died in the Ketziot Prion in southern Israel, the Palestinian Authority’s Commission of Detainees’ Affairs says. He is identified as Hatem Rayyan.

It’s unclear from the PA statement when he died. The Israel Prison Service does not immediately comment on the statement.

The PA commission says Rayyan was detained along with his injured son, Moaz, from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on December 27, 2024. The son remains in prison, according to the commission.

Relatives who earlier today announced Rayyan’s death on social media said another one of his sons, Bashir, was one of the Hamas operatives killed by the IDF when they tried to infiltrate Kibbutz Nir Am via an underground tunnel from Gaza on July 21, 2014, during that year’s Gaza war. Four IDF soldiers were killed in the attempted infiltration.

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