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Per data provided by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has indicated that the actual toll is likely considerably larger, due to hundreds of disappeared people from Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked fatalities attributed to brutality, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with lawyers, activists, next of kin, and observers.

Government bodies provided comprehensive information solely covering the first eight months of the hostilities. During this time, official figures show an unprecedented fatality rate among detained Palestinians, equating to a life lost every four days.

Latest Data

Official armed forces most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Analysts documented a further 35 casualties in detention subsequent to these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Although the aggregate figure of fatalities recorded being significantly higher than previous assessments, it probably fails to capture the full scale of losses among Palestinians, per the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are certain that there are yet individuals who perished in custody that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Restricted official information suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in jail were civilians, based on a parallel inquiry.

By May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 identified persons, recorded just 21 casualties in custody. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in jail.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities during 24 months of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Present and past detainees and informants from the armed services have all alleged routine infractions of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in fatalities registered across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade before the conflict, there were on average two or three deaths a year.

“This is not merely an isolated incident here and there. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” an official stated, partly because there is a climate of near total impunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of assaulting inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member handed a punishment to half a year. An effort to prosecute additional individuals over a vicious assault including abuse resulted in public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now requesting that charges against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“Despite this mass number of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “There exist no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these practices are being applied, every Palestinian in detention is in danger, even the healthy ones, even the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, such as a middle-aged medical chief who died in detention after a third of a year in detention.

A prisoner held with the victim reported that he was led to the exercise area by prison staff shortly before his demise, clearly wounded and naked from the waist down. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Detention administrators and armed services supplied researchers with the figure of deaths in confinement, and limited additional information for example the location where they lost their lives, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers could not to connect the minimal data given by officials to a casualty registered by human rights groups, either through accounts from released detainees or coverage in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has made it difficult to locate Palestinians it is holding. During 210 days at the beginning of the hostilities, the defense forces refused to give basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of persons held in Gaza, effectively enacting a policy of forced disappearance, per the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, officials have established an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on