Israeli prison forces attempted to kill Palestinian detainee Ghassan Ibrahim Zawahreh by shooting him three times with rubber bullets inside Negev prison, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said Wednesday.
In a statement, the nongovernmental organization held Israeli prison authorities fully responsible for Zawahreh’s life.
Zawahreh, from the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, has been subjected to degrading strip searches and severe beatings since being transferred from Ganot-Rimon prison to Negev prison on June 8, according to the group.
It said an Israeli special unit known as Metzada carried out an operation inside the prison on June 17, during which officers fired rubber bullets at detainees.
Zawahreh was first shot in the thigh before Israeli prison forces deliberately shot him two more times, causing severe wounds and heavy bleeding.
In testimony cited by the group, Zawahreh said he tried to walk despite his injury but collapsed in the prison yard because of heavy bleeding and later lost consciousness.
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He said a prison guard cut his pants around the wound before dragging him to the prison clinic, where guards continued to insult and humiliate him.
According to his testimony, he heard one guard ask a doctor, “Where do we put this dog?” referring to him.
Zawahreh was later transferred to Soroka Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Israeli prison authorities returned him to prison later the same day in a vehicle used to transport detainees, where he was again beaten with batons.
The group said the testimony showed Israeli prison forces had deliberately attempted to kill Zawahreh by shooting him three times with rubber bullets before later transferring him to Ganot prison.
Zawahreh is a former detainee who has spent a total of 17 years in Israeli prisons, including seven years serving prison sentences and the remainder under administrative detention.
He was rearrested by Israeli forces in February 2025 and placed under administrative detention again.
According to official Palestinian figures, around 9,400 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons as of early July, including more than 350 children and 99 women.
Since Oct. 8, 2023, Israel has intensified arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem alongside its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian institutions saying thousands of Palestinians have been detained during that period.
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