🔗 Share this article

According to data from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died while detained beginning in October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has reported that the real number is likely considerably higher, because of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation recorded fatalities caused by brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used official data requests, forensic reports, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided detailed information solely covering the opening period of the war. Throughout these months, official figures indicate an historically high death toll among Palestinian detainees, equating to one death each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

The military finalized records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Investigators discovered a further 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these periods and confirmed them with official sources.

Even with the total number of deaths documented being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a higher number of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are confident that there are yet individuals who perished in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified official information shows that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, according to a simultaneous inquiry.

In May of the current year, a defense forces registry monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 listed people, documented merely 21 casualties in detention. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s prison network throughout 24 months of war. Senior officials have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

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

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a disturbing rise in casualties documented across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the war, there were on average several fatalities a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative commented, in part because there is a climate of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the service member given a penalty to 210 days. A endeavor to try others over a brutal attack including abuse caused public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that allegations against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been arrested,” the official said. “There have been no indictments over any killing.

“While these practices are being applied, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, even the physically well individuals, including the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in confinement have been publicly known, including a middle-aged hospital director who died in prison after four months in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the individual testified that he was taken to the exercise area by correctional officers just prior to his death, clearly wounded and unclothed from the hips downward. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces supplied analysts with the figure of fatalities in confinement, and limited further data including the site where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers were not able to correlate the limited information provided by authorities to a death documented by rights organisations, via testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has created obstacles to locate Palestinians it is detaining. During 210 days at the start of the conflict, the defense forces would not provide to give essential data about the whereabouts of thousands of persons confined in Gaza, in effect carrying out a practice of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, authorities have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on