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Per figures provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has reported that the actual figure is likely substantially greater, because of hundreds of disappeared people in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A recent report documented casualties caused by brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers employed official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources provided complete data limited to the initial 240 days of the war. Throughout these months, reported numbers show an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging one death each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces most recently revised records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Researchers documented a further 35 fatalities in custody following these dates and verified them with official sources.

Although the aggregate figure of deaths recorded being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are offering documentation for a higher number of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are certain that there are still people who perished in custody that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified Israeli data indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a simultaneous investigation.

By May of this year, a armed services record following all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 listed people, listed just 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Prison Situation

Brutality, torture, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Present and past detainees and insiders from the defense forces have uniformly asserted systemic violations of global standards.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse came with a troubling surge in deaths registered across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade before the hostilities, there were usually two or three fatalities a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, partially due to the fact there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Just one case of beating prisoners has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to half a year. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault involving abuse caused public rallies and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months no one has been detained,” the representative said. “There are no charges over any killing.

“While these measures remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, including the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in detention have been high profile, including a senior medical chief who died in confinement after 120 days in confinement.

A detainee incarcerated with the deceased reported that he was brought to the exercise area by guards just prior to his death, visibly injured and unclothed from the waist down. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in detention in Israel are unidentified. Detention administrators and armed services provided researchers with the number of deaths in custody, and limited additional information including the site where they lost their lives, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

For 21 instances, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to connect the minimal data given by officials to a casualty documented by human rights groups, by means of accounts from former inmates or reporting in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinian individuals it is holding. During 210 days at the outset of the war, the defense forces would not provide to supply fundamental details about the condition of thousands of people held in Gaza, practically implementing a practice of unacknowledged detention, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, government bodies have provided an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a incomplete and restricted improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on