News - Middle East: Palestinian officials say the Israeli regime has assassinated another Palestinian prisoner who was in detention in one of the occupying entity's prisons.

The new fatality, which occurred on Monday, increases to seven the number of Palestinian inmates killed in the regime's prisons since October 7, 2023, when the Gaza Strip's resistance movements launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) announced the development in a joint statement. 

They identified the victim as 23-year-old Abdul Rahman Bassem al-Bahsh from the city of Nablus in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The assassination of al-Bahsh took place while he was being detained under a 35-month sentence at Megiddo prison near the city of Haifa in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories, the commission and the PPS said.

They added that al-Bahash was the first Palestinian inmate to be killed by Israeli forces on the first day of 2024, and the seventh since October 7, 2023.

The Palestinian bodies added that al-Bahsh's assassination "confirms that the occupation continues without no deterrent or any consideration to carry out more assassinations against prisoners...in addition to the systematic crimes of torture and abuse."

Hamas: Israeli crimes will backfire on regime

Reacting to Israel's new crime, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas issued a statement, saying the crime coincides with reports about field executions, brutal torture, and inhumane conditions faced by the Palestinian inmates, especially those who are from Gaza.

"We affirm that these assassinations and crimes will backfire on the usurping occupation as fire and hell," Hamas said.

The movement added, "The resistance fighters will teach this occupier appropriate lessons for the continuation of its crimes and brutality against our men, women, and children."

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are currently languishing in Israeli jails. 

Back in April, a joint report by a group of Palestinian rights advocacy groups revealed that the occupying entity is keeping about 4,900 Palestinian inmates, including many women and children, behind bars.

The regime's jail authorities usually keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. However, since Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the occupying regime has heightened its campaign of systematic torture, harassment, and repression against Palestinian inmates.

Following the operation, the regime also launched a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip, which has so far claimed the lives of close to 22,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Source: Press TV