Liberated prisoner Moatassem Raddad martyred in Egypt after years of medical neglect in occupation prisons

One year ago, in the occupation prisons, severely ill prisoner Moatassem Raddad sent a message, saying: “I feel like the next martyr in the occupation’s prisons.” Tonight, 8 May, Moatassem Raddad was martyred, after years of struggle against cancer and years of medical neglect and mistreatment in the occupation prisons, in hospital in Egypt, where he has been for the past several months. Liberated by the Resistance in the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange on 26 February, he has spent his entire time in Egypt hospitalized due to his advanced cancer.

Born in 1982 in Saida, near Tulkarem, he was an athlete in his youth, with three brothers and six sisters. He was one of many youth in Palestine who got involved in the resistance and the liberation movement amid the Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000. He was arrested for the first time in 2002 and sentenced to 17 months in prison. Upon his release, he deepened his involvement with the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, working in student and popular organizing, before joining its military wing, Saraya al-Quds. On 12 January 2006, Moatassem Raddad was severely injured when he and his comrades, the martyrs Ali Abu Khazna and Moataz Abu Khalil, resisted an attack by occupation forces assaulting the Hittin building in Jenin city.

The occupation forces bombed the house with shells and missiles, and arrested Moatassem while he was wounded and bleeding. He was severely injured in his abdomen and had shrapnel throughout his body. He was subjected to a harsh military investigation and sentenced to 20 years in occupation prisons by a Zionist military court. A few years after his imprisonment, following severe weight loss and multiple intestinal infections and bleeding, he was diagnosed with colon cancer, which advanced rapidly. His medical treatments were frequently delayed, and he was repeatedly denied early release. Since 7 October 2023, he was transferred from the Ramle prison clinic to Ofer prison, held in a cell without the basic needs for human life, and many of his medications were stopped. In May 2024, he issued an anguished call for his release, urging action so he would not be left behind to be martyred in prison.

He was included in the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange agreement, but after years of medical neglect and severe complications, he was martyred tonight, in Egypt. While he passed away in freedom, the circumstances were caused by years of systematic medical neglect and abuse at the hands of the occupation.

We salute the martyr Moatassem Raddad and extend our condolences to his loved ones, comrades, family and the Palestinian people on the loss of Moatassem Raddad, after years of medical neglect in the occupation prisons. We urge that his story and legacy be taken as a call to action to our entire movement to escalate our work and action to free all Palestinian prisoners, particularly the seriously and chronically ill prisoners threatened daily with martyrdom behind bars and subjected to systematic medical abuse and neglect.

We are republishing the following statement below from the Prisoners’ Media Office:

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful
Press release issued by the Prisoners’ Media Office

The Prisoners’ Media Office mourns the martyrdom of liberated prisoner Moatassem Raddad, who was martyred a short while ago in Egypt. Raddad’s death came after a long and painful struggle with illness, caused by deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli prison administration.

Martyr Raddad, from the town of Saida in the Tulkarm district, is considered one of the most difficult medical cases the prisoners’ movement has witnessed. He had been diagnosed with cancer for more than 16 years and spent most of his captivity in the Ramleh prison hospital, without receiving even the slightest modicum of medical care.

He was arrested in 2004 and released as part of the final batch of the Toufan al-Ahrar prisoner exchanges, after a long and agonizing journey behind bars. Today, he has ascended as a martyr outside prison, suffering from complications resulting from medical negligence.

We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of freed prisoner Raddad, and we affirm that the policy of deliberate medical neglect against prisoners is nothing more than a slow death tactic whose effects extend even after their release.

We call on the international community and human rights and humanitarian organizations to assume their responsibilities and pressure the occupation to halt this criminal policy, which violates all international laws and conventions.

Mercy for the martyr and freedom for our prisoners.

Prisoners’ Media Office
Thursday, May 8, 2025