Ramallah:A wounded Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli hospital, two Palestinian organisations said. Zaher Raddad, 19, from the town of Saida in Tulkarm, northern West Bank, died in the Israeli Meir Hospital, according to a statement by the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, part of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, along with the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Raddad was arrested on July 23, after the Israeli army shot him and "used him as a human shield during the military operation by placing him on the front of one of the Israeli military vehicles in the city," the statement said on Sunday.
With Radad's death, the number of prisoners who died in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023, has risen to 23, according to the statement. There has been no Israeli statement on the death of Raddad, Xinhua news agency reported.
Since October 2023, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, after the movement carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli towns adjacent to the Strip, which resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people.
The statement further detailed that Raddad had been held at Meir Hospital under critical and unstable health conditions, reliant on artificial respiration after undergoing several surgeries. Despite his grave condition, the Israeli authorities continued his detention until his death on Sunday.