21-Year-Old Palestinian Dies in Israeli Custody as West Bank Raids Detain Dozens

Abdul Rahman al-Sabateen, 21, from Husan near Bethlehem, died on Tuesday night at a Jerusalem medical facility while in Israeli custody, the Palestinian Authority said. Al-Sabateen was arrested by Israeli soldiers in late June; his family reported seeing no signs of illness during a court visit on November 25.

The death occurred as Israeli forces carried out dawn raids across the occupied West Bank, detaining more than 100 Palestinians, the Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office reported. Operations targeted cities and towns including Nablus (about 30 detained) and Silwad (around 24 detained). Witnesses told the Wafa news agency that soldiers entered homes and confiscated belongings and jewellery during the raids.

Human-rights organisations say al-Sabateen's death adds to a troubling pattern. Physicians for Human Rights – Israel reports at least 94 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since October 2023, documenting allegations of beatings, medical neglect and deliberate starvation. The UN human rights office has separately confirmed at least 75 detention deaths over the same period and said authorities have 'deliberately imposed conditions of detention that amount to torture or other forms of ill-treatment'.

Violence across the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict began, while settler attacks have risen sharply. UN data show more than 700 Palestinians were injured by Israeli settlers so far this year — double the total for all of 2024 — and October recorded 264 attacks, the highest monthly figure since tracking began in 2006.

Settlement expansion continues to accelerate. Israeli authorities approved 764 new housing units across three West Bank settlements on Wednesday, part of what Israeli media say is a 2.7 billion-shekel five-year plan to deepen control over the territory. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a vocal opponent of a two-state solution, described the approvals as part of 'the revolution.' Since late 2022, more than 51,000 settlement units have been authorised.

International and regional actors have criticised settlement approvals and annexation rhetoric. Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Reuters that 'the settlements are illegal' and contravene 'all the resolutions of international legitimacy.' The United States, European governments, and many Arab and Muslim states oppose full annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Human Rights Watch reported that Israeli forces forcibly displaced some 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps earlier this year, describing the operations as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director, called the displacement 'the second largest — after Gaza — displacement of Palestinians since 1967,' likening it to a second Nakba.

'They started in Gaza, then moved to the north of the West Bank — now it's just a matter of time until it’s our turn,' a psychologist working with Doctors Without Borders in Hebron said, describing a widespread sense of fear and grief among patients.

Rights groups, the UN and local medical and humanitarian workers warn of mounting psychological trauma, alleged ill-treatment in detention, and a pattern of displacements and settlement entrenchment that critics say further imperils prospects for a peaceful resolution.