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Per information provided by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died during detention beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the true figure is likely considerably larger, due to many of missing individuals in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation documented casualties attributed to assault, lack of healthcare, and malnutrition. Investigators used transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and interviews with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities released comprehensive statistics solely covering the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, reported numbers show an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to one death once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces most recently revised data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 fatalities in custody following these periods and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Although the total number of deaths documented being substantially larger than earlier projections, it probably fails to capture the full scale of losses among Palestinians, per the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are certain that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Restricted official information suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, per a parallel investigation.

By May of 2024, a armed services record tracking all combatants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded just 21 casualties in confinement. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in prison.

Detention Conditions

Assault, abuse, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities over 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an underground jail confining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Existing and previous prisoners and insiders from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in casualties recorded across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This does not represent only a single occurrence here and there. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a representative stated, in part because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Merely one incident of attacking prisoners has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to 210 days. An effort to prosecute others over a brutal attack including assault resulted in political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that indictments against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this large quantity of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no indictments over any death.

“During the time these practices remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in custody is at peril, including the physically well individuals, even the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, including a middle-aged healthcare leader who died in prison after four months in detention.

A prisoner detained alongside the individual reported that he was led to the exercise area by correctional officers shortly before his demise, clearly wounded and unclothed from the lower body. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who died in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and defense forces supplied researchers with the figure of casualties in confinement, and minimal further data such as the site where they perished, but without the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, researchers could not to connect the minimal data given by authorities to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, by means of testimony from released detainees or accounts in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the hostilities, the Israeli military would not provide to give basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of people confined in Gaza, in effect implementing a approach of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

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