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According to figures released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the actual number is probably significantly higher, because of hundreds of disappeared individuals from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation recorded fatalities caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used official data requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, human rights defenders, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided detailed data only for the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, government statistics indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Researchers discovered an additional 35 deaths in detention after these timeframes and confirmed them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of deaths documented being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are certain that there are still detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential official information suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in jail were non-combatants, based on a parallel examination.

In May of the current year, a armed services record monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 listed people, documented just 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities over two years of conflict. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past prisoners and insiders from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment came with a disturbing rise in casualties documented across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the war, there were typically two or three casualties a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” an official said, partly due to the fact there is a culture of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.

Merely one incident of beating inmates has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to 210 days. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack including sexual violence caused public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this large quantity of fatalities, throughout the conflict no one has been arrested,” the official noted. “There are no indictments over any death.

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

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in detention have been high profile, such as a senior medical chief who died in prison after a third of a year in detention.

A prisoner held with the deceased reported that he was brought to the exercise area by guards shortly before his passing, clearly wounded and exposed from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave analysts with the number of casualties in confinement, and basic additional information such as the facility where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, analysts were unable to correlate the few details supplied by government bodies to a death registered by human rights groups, either through accounts from released detainees or coverage in the press.

The detainees’ families could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinian individuals it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to give fundamental details about the status of thousands of individuals confined in Gaza, practically implementing a policy of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, government bodies have created an electronic contact for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on