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Based on data released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has indicated that the real toll is likely considerably higher, due to numerous of disappeared individuals in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked casualties caused by assault, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Investigators employed transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with legal representatives, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed detailed data solely covering the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, government statistics reveal an unprecedented death toll among Palestinian detainees, averaging one death every four days.

Latest Data

The military last updated records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Investigators discovered another 35 casualties in detention subsequent to these periods and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the overall count of deaths recorded being much greater than previous assessments, it almost certainly omits the complete extent of Palestinian loss, per the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are certain that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted government records suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, according to a parallel investigation.

By May of 2024, a armed services record monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 listed people, recorded just 21 fatalities in custody. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in jail.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of conflict. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted inadequate food and an subterranean prison confining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Present and past prisoners and whistleblowers from the armed services have uniformly asserted systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse came with a alarming increase in fatalities registered across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years before the conflict, there were on average several casualties a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case here and there. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” an official said, partly because there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Just one case of beating prisoners has reached litigation, with the service member handed a punishment to half a year. A endeavor to prosecute additional individuals over a severe beating featuring assault led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this significant total of fatalities, over two years no one has been arrested,” the official stated. “There have been no charges over any killing.

“As long as these measures continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement faces risk, even the those in good health, even the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, including a 50-year-old healthcare leader who lost his life in confinement after four months in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the victim testified that he was taken to the exercise area by guards immediately preceding his death, obviously hurt and unclothed from the waist down. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. The prison service and military gave analysts with the figure of deaths in custody, and basic additional information such as the location where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mainly individuals from Gaza, analysts were not able to correlate the limited information provided by officials to a casualty recorded by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has made it difficult to track detainees it is holding. During 210 days at the outset of the hostilities, the defense forces would not provide to supply basic information about the whereabouts of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, effectively enacting a practice of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, authorities have provided an email address for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on