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According to data from Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have perished while in custody since October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the actual figure is probably substantially greater, because of many of unaccounted for individuals originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked casualties resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators employed freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and interviews with attorneys, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources disclosed detailed statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, official figures indicate an unprecedented death toll among detained Palestinians, equating to one death once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Analysts identified another 35 fatalities in detention after these timeframes and validated them with official sources.

Even with the total number of casualties charted being much greater than previous assessments, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian loss, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are sure that there are even now people who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, according to a simultaneous examination.

By May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 identified persons, recorded merely 21 casualties in custody. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Brutality, mistreatment, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities over two years of conflict. Top government figures have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Current and former inmates and whistleblowers from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a disturbing rise in casualties recorded across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade preceding the war, there were usually two or three casualties a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence sporadically. It is systemic and it will continue,” an official commented, partially because there is a climate of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel handed a punishment to 210 days. An effort to prosecute others over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this significant total of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There exist no indictments over any killing.

“While these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in custody faces risk, including the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in detention have been high profile, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who perished in detention after 120 days in detention.

A prisoner held with the deceased stated that he was brought to the courtyard by prison staff shortly before his death, obviously hurt and exposed from the waist down. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Correctional authorities and armed services gave researchers with the figure of fatalities in confinement, and limited additional information including the site where they died, but without the detainees’ identities.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, researchers were unable to correlate the few details given by officials to a fatality recorded by rights organisations, via statements from former inmates or coverage in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinian individuals it is holding. For seven months at the outset of the war, the defense forces refused to give essential data about the status of many of individuals held in Gaza, in effect implementing a practice of unacknowledged detention, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

From May 2024, authorities have established an email address for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on