JERUSALEM – An investigation into the death of a Palestinian teenager in an Israeli prison has been closed by an Israeli judge, who said even though it’s clear the boy was starved, the cause of death is undeterminable, a newly-unsealed court decision has revealed.

The ruling provided insight into Israel’s handling of the flashpoint case of 17-year-old Walid Ahmad, which gained notoriety because he was the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention, said Palestinian officials.

Ahmad, who was described by his family as a healthy teenager, spent six months in Israel’s Megiddo prison before he collapsed in March 2025. His autopsy did not establish a single, definitive cause of death, but said that starvation was likely the leading cause, according to the report of an Israeli doctor who observed the procedure.