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Per data released by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has reported that the real toll is probably significantly larger, as a result of many of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report recorded casualties caused by brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators employed official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with legal representatives, activists, next of kin, and observers.

Government bodies provided comprehensive data only for the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, official figures show an record fatality rate among detained Palestinians, averaging one death each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces last updated information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 fatalities in confinement following these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the aggregate figure of deaths documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet people who lost their lives in detention that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified Israeli data suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in jail were non-combatants, according to a parallel investigation.

By May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 listed people, listed just 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in detention.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Existing and previous inmates and informants from the defense forces have uniformly asserted systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse came with a disturbing rise in deaths registered across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade before the hostilities, there were usually two or three deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case here and there. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a representative said, partially since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault including abuse resulted in political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this significant total of deaths, during 24 months not one individual has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.

“While these measures are being applied, each Palestinian individual in detention is at peril, including the healthy ones, also the young ones who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in custody have been high profile, for instance a 50-year-old medical chief who died in prison after 120 days in custody.

An inmate held with the deceased testified that he was taken to the exercise area by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, obviously hurt and naked from the waist down. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in Israeli custody remain anonymous. The prison service and defense forces gave investigators with the total of deaths in detention, and minimal additional information including the facility where they lost their lives, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mainly individuals from Gaza, investigators were unable to correlate the limited information given by authorities to a fatality recorded by advocacy bodies, via statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinian individuals it is holding. Over half a year at the outset of the hostilities, the armed services refused to provide essential data about the status of numerous of individuals detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a practice of involuntary missing persons, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, officials have provided an electronic contact for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on