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Per data from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the actual number is probably significantly larger, as a result of many of disappeared people from Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study documented casualties resulting from assault, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Investigators used official data requests, forensic reports, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed complete statistics limited to the opening period of the conflict. Throughout these months, reported numbers reveal an historically high death toll among Palestinian detainees, amounting to a single fatality once every four-day period.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 casualties in detention after these timeframes and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the overall count of casualties recorded being substantially larger than earlier projections, it likely omits the complete extent of Palestinian loss, according to the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are sure that there are yet people who died in custody that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, according to a parallel investigation.

During May of the current year, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 fatalities in detention. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Prison Situation

Physical violence, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s jail system throughout two years of conflict. Senior officials have publicly referenced inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have uniformly asserted systemic violations of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a alarming increase in fatalities documented across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the war, there were usually two or three casualties a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson stated, partly since there is a environment of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.

Merely one incident of attacking detainees has come to trial, with the service member given a penalty to half a year. An effort to try others over a vicious assault including abuse caused political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that charges against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this significant total of casualties, during 24 months no one has faced arrest,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no charges over any death.

“As long as these policies are being applied, each Palestinian individual in detention faces risk, even the those in good health, including the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in detention have been widely reported, for instance a 50-year-old hospital director who died in detention after a third of a year in custody.

A prisoner incarcerated with the individual stated that he was taken to the courtyard by guards just prior to his death, obviously hurt and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided investigators with the number of deaths in custody, and limited additional information such as the site where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to match the few details given by officials to a fatality documented by rights organisations, either through statements from released detainees or reporting in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has created obstacles to locate Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of many of persons held in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, authorities have established an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on