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According to figures released by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have perished while detained starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has indicated that the actual toll is likely significantly higher, due to hundreds of missing individuals originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked fatalities resulting from physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with lawyers, advocates, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, official figures reveal an historically high death toll among detained Palestinians, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators documented a further 35 fatalities in custody following these dates and confirmed them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of casualties recorded being much greater than other recent estimates, it probably does not reflect the entire scope of Palestinian loss, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are offering documentation for a larger total of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are certain that there are even now individuals who died in detention that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified government records suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, per a related examination.

During May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 casualties in confinement. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of conflict. Top government figures have openly admitted inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining detainees who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous inmates and informants from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities registered across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade before the war, there were typically two or three fatalities a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident here and there. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson said, partially since there is a culture of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Only a single instance of assaulting inmates has reached litigation, with the military personnel handed a punishment to seven months. An effort to prosecute others over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that charges against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this large quantity of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative said. “There exist no prosecutions over any fatality.

“During the time these policies are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in confinement faces risk, also the those in good health, even the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in confinement have been publicly known, including a senior medical chief who lost his life in prison after a third of a year in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the deceased testified that he was led to the exercise area by correctional officers immediately preceding his demise, obviously hurt and naked from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. Detention administrators and defense forces gave investigators with the number of deaths in confinement, and basic other details including the facility where they perished, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, primarily detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the minimal data given by authorities to a fatality recorded by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from former inmates or accounts in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has made it difficult to locate Palestinians it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the defense forces would not provide to supply essential data about the whereabouts of numerous of persons held in Gaza, in effect carrying out a policy of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, authorities have established an email address for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on