🔗 Share this article

According to information provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have perished during detention beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has reported that the true number is probably considerably larger, due to numerous of missing individuals in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation recorded casualties attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Researchers employed freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with attorneys, activists, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided comprehensive information only for the first eight months of the hostilities. During this time, official figures reveal an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging one death every four days.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces finalized data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Researchers documented another 35 fatalities in detention after these periods and confirmed them with government bodies.

Although the total number of casualties recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of losses among Palestinians, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are offering documentation for a greater figure of casualties than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are still individuals who died in custody that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted government records suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, based on a parallel investigation.

In May of 2024, a armed services record following all combatants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 named individuals, documented just 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in jail.

Prison Situation

Assault, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities during the duration of conflict. Top government figures have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Present and past inmates and informants from the defense forces have all alleged systemic violations of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a troubling surge in fatalities documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years before the hostilities, there were typically two or three fatalities a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence here and there. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official stated, in part since there is a climate of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Just one case of beating inmates has reached litigation, with the service member sentenced to seven months. An attempt to charge others over a vicious assault featuring assault caused public rallies and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of fatalities, during 24 months not a single person has been detained,” the representative stated. “There exist no charges over any fatality.

“As long as these measures continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement faces risk, even the those in good health, including the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, for instance a middle-aged medical chief who lost his life in prison after four months in custody.

A prisoner incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers just prior to his death, obviously hurt and naked from the lower body. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces gave analysts with the total of casualties in detention, and basic additional information such as the facility where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly individuals from Gaza, investigators could not to connect the limited information provided by officials to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, by means of accounts from released detainees or coverage in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has created obstacles to locate detainees it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the Israeli military declined to give basic information about the whereabouts of many of persons confined in Gaza, in effect carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, according to the human rights group.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have established an digital correspondence for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a incomplete and restricted improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on