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Based on data provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has stated that the real figure is likely substantially higher, as a result of many of disappeared detainees in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study recorded deaths caused by brutality, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts utilized official data requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with lawyers, advocates, relatives, and witnesses.

Government bodies disclosed detailed data limited to the first eight months of the war. Over this period, government statistics show an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a single fatality each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised information on detention fatalities for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 fatalities in detention after these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the aggregate figure of deaths documented being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of losses among Palestinians, per the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a greater figure of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are even now people who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified official information suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in prison were civilians, based on a simultaneous examination.

In May of 2024, a armed services record tracking all combatants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 named individuals, listed merely 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Physical violence, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s jail system over 24 months of hostilities. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison detaining detainees who are denied sunlight.

Present and past prisoners and informants from the Israeli military have collectively claimed systemic violations of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties documented across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade before the war, there were on average two or three deaths a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is widespread and it will continue,” a representative said, in part because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating prisoners has come to trial, with the soldier given a penalty to 210 days. An effort to prosecute other suspects over a severe beating including assault led to public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now demanding that charges against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has faced arrest,” the spokesperson noted. “There are no indictments over any death.

“During the time these measures remain in effect, every Palestinian in custody is in danger, even the physically well individuals, including the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, including a senior hospital director who died in prison after a third of a year in confinement.

An inmate held with the individual reported that he was brought to the courtyard by correctional officers shortly before his death, clearly wounded and unclothed from the waist down. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Detention administrators and armed services supplied researchers with the total of fatalities in detention, and basic further data including the facility where they perished, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, investigators were unable to correlate the few details provided by government bodies to a death registered by rights organisations, either through accounts from former inmates or accounts in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinian individuals it is holding. Over half a year at the start of the conflict, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the condition of numerous of persons confined in Gaza, practically implementing a practice of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, government bodies have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on