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According to information provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has indicated that the true number is almost certainly considerably greater, because of many of missing detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study documented casualties resulting from physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts employed freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and discussions with attorneys, human rights defenders, relatives, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities provided detailed information limited to the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, government statistics reveal an historically high casualty rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality once every four-day period.

Recent Figures

The military finalized data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Analysts discovered a further 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Although the total number of casualties recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it probably does not reflect the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a greater figure of casualties than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are certain that there are still detainees who lost their lives in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified Israeli data indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, based on a simultaneous inquiry.

During May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all militants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 identified persons, listed only 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in jail.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, torture, and further cruelty 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 subterranean prison confining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Current and former detainees and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have collectively claimed routine infractions of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a alarming increase in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the war, there were on average several casualties a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it will continue,” an official commented, in part due to the fact there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel handed a punishment to 210 days. An effort to try others over a severe beating including abuse led to public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that indictments against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the official said. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.

“During the time these policies are being applied, every Palestinian in confinement is at peril, including the physically well individuals, including the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

Notable Incidents

Several casualties in custody have been publicly known, for instance a 50-year-old medical chief who lost his life in prison after 120 days in custody.

A prisoner detained alongside the victim testified that he was brought to the courtyard by correctional officers just prior to his death, clearly wounded and unclothed from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military provided researchers with the figure of fatalities in confinement, and minimal further data such as the facility where they died, but without the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, analysts were unable to connect the minimal data given by officials to a fatality registered by human rights groups, either through statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinians it is detaining. Over half a year at the start of the hostilities, the armed services refused to give essential data about the condition of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, in effect implementing a approach of involuntary missing persons, according to the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an email address for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on