🔗 Share this article

According to information from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the real figure is probably significantly higher, due to hundreds of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study documented casualties attributed to brutality, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Analysts utilized official data requests, forensic reports, and discussions with legal representatives, human rights defenders, family members, and observers.

Official sources released complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. Throughout these months, official figures show an unprecedented death toll among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a single fatality every four days.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces last updated data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Researchers identified an additional 35 fatalities in confinement subsequent to these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Although the total number of casualties documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian loss, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are confident that there are even now detainees who died in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted official information shows that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous examination.

During May of 2024, a armed services record tracking all fighters in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 fatalities in custody. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in detention.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, abuse, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s jail system over the duration of war. Senior officials have openly admitted inadequate food and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Current and former prisoners and insiders from the Israeli military have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a troubling surge in fatalities documented across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade before the conflict, there were on average two or three fatalities a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a representative commented, partially due to the fact there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating detainees.

Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to half a year. An effort to try additional individuals over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence caused right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this large quantity of deaths, over two years not one individual has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There are no charges over any death.

“As long as these measures remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is at peril, even the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in confinement have been high profile, such as a senior medical chief who died in confinement after 120 days in detention.

An inmate detained alongside the deceased reported that he was brought to the exercise area by guards shortly before his passing, obviously hurt and exposed from the hips downward. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. Correctional authorities and military provided investigators with the number of fatalities in custody, and basic additional information for example the location where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to match the limited information provided by government bodies to a fatality documented by rights organisations, via accounts from former inmates or reporting in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the war, the defense forces declined to provide basic information about the condition of many of individuals confined in Gaza, effectively carrying out a practice of unacknowledged detention, according to the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, officials have provided an email address for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on