🔗 Share this article

According to figures from Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has indicated that the real figure is likely significantly greater, as a result of numerous of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked deaths resulting from physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Analysts employed freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with attorneys, activists, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources released complete information only for the opening period of the war. Over this period, official figures reveal an unprecedented fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

Official armed forces finalized data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Analysts documented a further 35 deaths in confinement after these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the aggregate figure of deaths documented being substantially larger than previous assessments, it probably omits the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the director of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are confident that there are even now people who lost their lives in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted Israeli data indicates that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in jail were non-combatants, per a parallel investigation.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 listed people, listed just 21 casualties in detention. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in detention.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network throughout 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have uniformly asserted systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment occurred alongside a troubling surge in fatalities registered across no fewer than 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade preceding the hostilities, there were on average two or three fatalities a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson commented, in part because there is a culture of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Only a single instance of beating prisoners has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to seven months. A endeavor to try additional individuals over a brutal attack including abuse led to public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now demanding that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“Despite this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There exist no prosecutions over any death.

“During the time these policies continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in detention is in danger, also the physically well individuals, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in confinement have been widely reported, such as a middle-aged hospital director who lost his life in prison after a third of a year in confinement.

A detainee held with the individual stated that he was brought to the courtyard by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, visibly injured and naked from the hips downward. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in detention in Israel are unidentified. Detention administrators and armed services supplied investigators with the number of fatalities in detention, and basic other details such as the site where they lost their lives, but not the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, primarily detainees from Gaza, analysts were not able to connect the limited information supplied by government bodies to a casualty registered by rights organisations, either through testimony from former inmates or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinians it is confining. Over half a year at the outset of the hostilities, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the condition of thousands of persons confined in Gaza, practically carrying out a policy of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

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