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Per data released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has reported that the real number is likely significantly greater, due to numerous of disappeared individuals in Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report documented casualties caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, activists, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources released complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. Throughout these months, government statistics indicate an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost once every four-day period.

Latest Data

Official armed forces finalized records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Analysts discovered another 35 casualties in confinement after these timeframes and validated them with official sources.

Although the total number of deaths recorded being much greater than previous assessments, it likely omits the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, per the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a greater figure of casualties than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are confident that there are even now detainees who died in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified government records shows that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in jail were civilians, based on a related examination.

By May of 2024, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 identified persons, listed only 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in jail.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over two years of war. Top government figures have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison holding Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Current and former prisoners and whistleblowers from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a alarming increase in deaths documented across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade before the war, there were typically a couple fatalities a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official stated, partially because there is a culture of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking inmates has proceeded to court, with the military personnel given a penalty to half a year. An attempt to charge other suspects over a vicious assault including sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the accused individuals now requesting that indictments against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, over two years not a single person has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There are no indictments over any fatality.

“As long as these policies are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in custody is in danger, even the healthy ones, including the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in detention have been widely reported, for instance a senior hospital director who perished in confinement after 120 days in custody.

A detainee incarcerated with the victim testified that he was led to the courtyard by prison staff just prior to his passing, obviously hurt and unclothed from the waist down. His corpse remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who perished in Israeli custody are unidentified. Detention administrators and military supplied analysts with the number of casualties in custody, and minimal additional information such as the location where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, primarily detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the limited information given by authorities to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, via accounts from released detainees or coverage in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families may not know about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has made it difficult to track Palestinians it is holding. During 210 days at the start of the conflict, the Israeli military refused to supply fundamental details about the status of many of persons confined in Gaza, practically enacting a approach of involuntary missing persons, according to the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

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