The League of Arab States (Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector) strongly condemns the martyrdom of the young Palestinian prisoner, Abdul Rahman Sufian Muhammad Al-Sabateen, aged 21, from the town of Husan west of Bethlehem. He passed away on 9 December in an Israeli hospital following a severe deterioration in his health as a result of deliberate medical negligence and inhumane detention conditions.
The League of Arab States considers the martyrdom of Al-Sabateen—the sixth Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli occupation prisons since the beginning of 2025—to constitute yet another crime added to the record of systematic violations committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian prisoners and detainees. It represents a flagrant breach of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and of international humanitarian law. The policy of deliberate medical neglect pursued by the occupation’s prison authorities against thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including children, women, and the sick, amounts to a form of slow killing and torture, both of which are strictly prohibited under international law.
The League calls upon the international community, as well as human rights and humanitarian organisations, foremost among them the International Committee of the Red Cross, to intervene urgently and exert pressure on the occupying power to immediately release the body of the martyr and hand it over to his family.
It further calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to include the crime of deliberate medical negligence against prisoners within the scope of the ongoing investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The League of Arab States reaffirms its full and unwavering support for the Palestinian people until the end of the occupation and the attainment of their freedom and independence.
