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Per information provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have died while detained starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has stated that the true figure is almost certainly substantially larger, because of many of missing people from Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A recent report recorded fatalities attributed to physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Researchers utilized official data requests, forensic reports, and discussions with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed detailed data only for the opening period of the war. Throughout these months, government statistics show an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a life lost once every four-day period.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces last updated data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators documented an additional 35 fatalities in confinement after these dates and confirmed them with government bodies.

Despite the overall count of fatalities documented being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly does not reflect the entire scope of Palestinian loss, per the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are presenting proof for a higher number of casualties than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are still people who died in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted official information shows that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, per a parallel investigation.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all combatants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded just 21 casualties in confinement. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of war. Top government figures have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Present and past detainees and insiders from the armed services have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a troubling surge in deaths recorded across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years preceding the conflict, there were on average a couple fatalities a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence sporadically. It is systemic and it will continue,” a spokesperson commented, partially since there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to half a year. A endeavor to charge other suspects over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now requesting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of casualties, during 24 months no one has been detained,” the representative noted. “There exist no prosecutions over any fatality.

“During the time these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in custody faces risk, also the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, such as a 50-year-old hospital director who lost his life in prison after a third of a year in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the deceased reported that he was brought to the courtyard by correctional officers shortly before his demise, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. Detention administrators and military supplied analysts with the total of deaths in detention, and basic further data including the facility where they perished, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers could not to correlate the limited information provided by government bodies to a casualty registered by advocacy bodies, either through testimony from released detainees or coverage in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinian individuals it is confining. For seven months at the beginning of the hostilities, the defense forces declined to give fundamental details about the whereabouts of numerous of people held in Gaza, in effect implementing a approach of unacknowledged detention, according to the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have provided an digital correspondence for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on