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Per information released by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died while in custody starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has reported that the real figure is probably substantially higher, because of hundreds of missing detainees from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked fatalities attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers employed official data requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with legal representatives, activists, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources released detailed information only for the opening period of the conflict. During this time, reported numbers indicate an record death toll among detained Palestinians, amounting to a life lost each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

The military finalized information on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 casualties in detention following these timeframes and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the overall count of casualties charted being substantially larger than previous assessments, it likely does not reflect the complete extent of Palestinian loss, as stated by the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are providing evidence for a larger total of fatalities than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are sure that there are still detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified official information indicates that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who died in jail were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel investigation.

In May of 2024, a military intelligence database monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 deaths in custody. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in detention.

Detention Conditions

Brutality, mistreatment, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of war. Top government figures have publicly referenced inadequate food and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have collectively claimed systemic violations of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in casualties documented across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade prior to the hostilities, there were on average a couple deaths a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident here and there. It is systemic and it will continue,” an official said, partly because there is a environment of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Just one case of beating prisoners has reached litigation, with the service member sentenced to half a year. A endeavor to try other suspects over a brutal attack including sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, over two years no one has been detained,” the spokesperson said. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.

“As long as these practices remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in detention is at peril, including the healthy ones, even the young ones who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in detention have been publicly known, for instance a senior medical chief who died in detention after a third of a year in confinement.

An inmate incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the yard by guards shortly before his death, visibly injured and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody are unidentified. Correctional authorities and military gave investigators with the total of fatalities in detention, and limited additional information for example the location where they perished, but excluding the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly detainees from Gaza, analysts could not to correlate the minimal data given by government bodies to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, either through accounts from former inmates or accounts in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor detainees it is confining. During 210 days at the start of the war, the Israeli military would not provide to provide essential data about the whereabouts of many of individuals detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a approach of unacknowledged detention, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, authorities have created an electronic contact for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on