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Based on figures from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have perished while detained since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has indicated that the true toll is probably significantly larger, as a result of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A recent report documented deaths caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Investigators utilized transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed comprehensive statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the war. Throughout these months, reported numbers reveal an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a life lost each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces most recently revised data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators documented a further 35 deaths in custody after these periods and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Although the overall count of fatalities documented being substantially larger than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian loss, according to the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he explained. “We are certain that there are still people who died in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information shows that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were ordinary citizens, per a parallel inquiry.

During May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 listed people, documented only 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, abuse, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s jail system during two years of conflict. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Current and former detainees and whistleblowers from the armed services have uniformly asserted routine infractions of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a troubling surge in casualties registered across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were usually several fatalities a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a representative said, partially because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking prisoners has proceeded to court, with the military personnel sentenced to seven months. An effort to prosecute others over a brutal attack involving abuse caused political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that charges against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this mass number of casualties, during 24 months not one individual has faced arrest,” the official said. “There are no charges over any death.

“During the time these policies are being applied, each Palestinian individual in custody is at peril, even the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, including a senior healthcare leader who lost his life in confinement after a third of a year in custody.

A detainee held with the victim testified that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff just prior to his demise, obviously hurt and exposed from the lower body. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. The prison service and armed services provided investigators with the figure of fatalities in detention, and basic further data such as the location where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

For 21 instances, mainly people from Gaza, researchers were not able to connect the few details supplied by government bodies to a death registered by rights organisations, either through accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families may not know about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinians it is holding. During 210 days at the outset of the war, the Israeli military refused to supply fundamental details about the condition of many of persons detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a approach of forced disappearance, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have created an electronic contact for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on