Palestinian teenager starved in prison before dying, judge rules | World News

A Palestinian teenager was starved in an Israeli prison before his death, a judge ruled before closing the case.

Based on the newly unsealed court ruling, the judge said it was clear that 17-year-old Walid Ahmad was starving, but the cause of his death could not be determined.

This case attracted attention because it was the first Palestine under 18 died in Israeli custody, Palestinian official said.

Ahmad, described by his family as a healthy teenager, spent six months in Israel’s Megiddo prison before collapsing in March 2025.

His family said he was arrested at his home in the occupied West Bank town of Silwad, in an early morning raid in September 2024, for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers.

An autopsy found no definite cause of death, but starvation was likely the main cause, according to the report of an Israeli doctor who observed the procedure.

Dr Daniel Solomon also noted that the teenager was suffering from extreme malnutrition and was showing signs of scabies.

In a now-unsealed ruling, first published by Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli judge overseeing the investigation ordered it to be halted in December.

The judge said evidence of Ahmad’s starvation did not prove the cause of his death.

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Judge Ehud Kaplan, according to a Haaretz ruling shared with The Associated Press, wrote: “The fact that she appeared to be starving cannot be hidden and should not be hidden.

“But I cannot determine based on the findings of the expert report that there is a causal relationship between his poor physical condition and his death, therefore I cannot determine that the death was caused by a crime.”

He added: “Given these circumstances, the investigation into his death has been completed.”

In Israel, judges can be asked to oversee investigations into deaths of detainees in custody.

They can search for and review evidence to determine the cause of death, and determine whether the death was caused by any party’s fault.

If evidence of a violation is proven, a judge may file criminal charges. Or, as was done in Ahmad’s case, they can order the investigation to stop.

Haaretz published the ruling after successfully filing a gag order to have the case dismissed.