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Per figures provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody since October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the true figure is likely significantly higher, because of many of unaccounted for people from Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked fatalities attributed to assault, lack of healthcare, and malnutrition. Investigators used transparency petitions, forensic reports, and interviews with lawyers, activists, next of kin, and observers.

Israeli authorities provided detailed information only for the opening period of the conflict. Throughout these months, official figures show an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

The military last updated information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Researchers identified another 35 fatalities in detention subsequent to these dates and confirmed them with government bodies.

Despite the total number of casualties charted being substantially larger than previous assessments, it likely omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are confident that there are yet people who died in confinement that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were civilians, per a related examination.

In May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 identified persons, recorded merely 21 fatalities in confinement. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Brutality, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center holding Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Current and former inmates and informants from the Israeli military have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a troubling surge in casualties registered across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were on average a couple casualties a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson stated, partially since there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Just one case of beating inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to seven months. A endeavor to charge other suspects over a brutal attack featuring abuse led to public rallies and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this mass number of deaths, throughout the conflict not a single person has been detained,” the representative stated. “There exist no charges over any death.

“As long as these practices are being applied, every Palestinian in confinement is in danger, also the those in good health, also the young ones who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in custody have been widely reported, such as a senior healthcare leader who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in confinement.

A detainee held with the deceased reported that he was taken to the yard by prison staff just prior to his death, clearly wounded and naked from the hips downward. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided analysts with the figure of fatalities in custody, and limited additional information including the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the detainees’ identities.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mainly people from Gaza, researchers were unable to match the limited information supplied by officials to a death recorded by rights organisations, by means of statements from released detainees or coverage in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families may not know about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has made it difficult to track Palestinians it is confining. During 210 days at the beginning of the conflict, the defense forces would not provide to give fundamental details about the status of thousands of persons confined in Gaza, practically carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the human rights group.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, authorities have created an email address for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on