🔗 Share this article

Based on data released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have perished during detention starting from October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the true number is probably significantly larger, because of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report tracked deaths resulting from physical violence, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Researchers employed freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities released complete statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, reported numbers reveal an record death toll among Palestinian detainees, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces last updated information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Analysts discovered an additional 35 casualties in confinement after these periods and verified them with official sources.

Even with the overall count of deaths recorded being much greater than earlier projections, it probably omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the director of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are offering documentation for a higher number of deaths than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are still people who died in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a related examination.

During May of 2024, a military intelligence database tracking all combatants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, listed just 21 casualties in confinement. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in jail.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of war. Top government figures have openly admitted inadequate food and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous prisoners and informants from the Israeli military have all alleged routine infractions of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths recorded across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade before the conflict, there were typically a couple deaths a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case occasionally. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” an official stated, partially because there is a culture of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel sentenced to 210 days. An attempt to try additional individuals over a severe beating involving abuse led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that indictments against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months not a single person has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There are no prosecutions over any killing.

“During the time these policies remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, also the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in detention have been high profile, for instance a middle-aged hospital director who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in detention.

An inmate detained alongside the individual stated that he was taken to the yard by guards shortly before his demise, clearly wounded and naked from the hips downward. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided investigators with the total of deaths in detention, and minimal additional information for example the location where they died, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, investigators could not to match the limited information supplied by government bodies to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from released detainees or reporting in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities also, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is confining. During 210 days at the beginning of the hostilities, the defense forces refused to provide essential data about the status of many of people held in Gaza, in effect implementing a practice of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have established an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on