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Based on figures from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has stated that the real figure is probably significantly larger, because of many of disappeared people in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation documented fatalities caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators used transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided detailed data solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, government statistics reveal an record casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging one death each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Official armed forces last updated information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Investigators discovered another 35 casualties in custody after these timeframes and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Although the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it likely omits the full scale of Palestinian loss, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he explained. “We are confident that there are yet people who perished in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were non-combatants, according to a parallel inquiry.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 listed people, recorded just 21 fatalities in confinement. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in jail.

Detention Conditions

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities throughout two years of war. Senior officials have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an underground jail detaining Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the armed services have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a alarming increase in fatalities recorded across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the hostilities, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident here and there. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official commented, in part due to the fact there is a culture of near total impunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Merely one incident of attacking detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to charge other suspects over a severe beating featuring assault led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that charges against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this mass number of casualties, over two years no one has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.

“While these practices remain in effect, every Palestinian in confinement faces risk, even the healthy ones, including the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in custody have been widely reported, including a 50-year-old healthcare leader who perished in detention after four months in detention.

A prisoner held with the victim reported that he was taken to the exercise area by correctional officers shortly before his death, visibly injured and naked from the waist down. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. The prison service and defense forces supplied analysts with the figure of fatalities in confinement, and basic additional information for example the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mainly individuals from Gaza, investigators could not to correlate the limited information given by officials to a casualty recorded by advocacy bodies, by means of statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has made it difficult to locate detainees it is confining. Over half a year at the outset of the war, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the status of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, in effect enacting a approach of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on