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Based on information from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while detained beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has stated that the actual toll is almost certainly considerably higher, because of numerous of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation recorded deaths caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and interviews with lawyers, human rights defenders, family members, and observers.

Official sources released comprehensive information only for the first eight months of the hostilities. Throughout these months, government statistics show an unprecedented death toll among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a life lost every four days.

Latest Data

Official armed forces last updated data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Investigators documented another 35 deaths in confinement after these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of deaths recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely omits the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, per the director of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet individuals who died in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were civilians, according to a simultaneous investigation.

During May of the current year, a military intelligence database tracking all militants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 named individuals, recorded only 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Detention Conditions

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s prison network over two years of hostilities. Senior officials have openly admitted inadequate food and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the armed services have all alleged routine infractions of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a troubling surge in fatalities registered across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the war, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is systemic and it will continue,” a representative commented, in part because there is a environment of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Merely one incident of beating detainees has come to trial, with the service member handed a punishment to seven months. An attempt to prosecute additional individuals over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence resulted in public rallies and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that charges against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“Despite this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict no one has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There have been no indictments over any killing.

“While these policies continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement faces risk, even the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in detention have been high profile, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who perished in detention after 120 days in confinement.

An inmate held with the individual testified that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers shortly before his demise, obviously hurt and exposed from the waist down. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and military provided investigators with the figure of deaths in confinement, and minimal additional information for example the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, investigators could not to connect the limited information given by government bodies to a casualty recorded by rights organisations, by means of statements from released detainees or reporting in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has made it difficult to locate Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the outset of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to provide essential data about the condition of thousands of people detained in Gaza, practically enacting a practice of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, authorities have created an digital correspondence for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on