🔗 Share this article

Based on information released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has stated that the true toll is probably significantly higher, because of hundreds of missing individuals in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked deaths resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts used transparency petitions, forensic reports, and interviews with legal representatives, advocates, family members, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities provided comprehensive data only for the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, reported numbers reveal an record fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to one death once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

The military last updated data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 casualties in detention following these timeframes and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the total number of deaths recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it likely does not reflect the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are sure that there are yet individuals who lost their lives in detention that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential Israeli data shows that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a related examination.

During May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded only 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in jail.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system during two years of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly referenced inadequate food and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Present and past detainees and insiders from the defense forces have collectively claimed systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in deaths registered across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. During the previous decade before the conflict, there were on average a couple deaths a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case here and there. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” an official commented, partly because there is a climate of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of beating prisoners has reached litigation, with the service member handed a punishment to half a year. An effort to prosecute others over a brutal attack featuring assault resulted in right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that indictments against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this large quantity of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has been arrested,” the spokesperson stated. “There are no charges over any death.

“While these practices continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement is in danger, also the those in good health, also the youth who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, for instance a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in detention after four months in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his death, obviously hurt and exposed from the hips downward. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided researchers with the total of deaths in confinement, and minimal further data including the site where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to correlate the minimal data provided by authorities to a fatality registered by human rights groups, via statements from released detainees or reporting in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinians it is detaining. Over half a year at the beginning of the conflict, the Israeli military declined to provide fundamental details about the status of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, practically enacting a practice of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, government bodies have established an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on