No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Perished in Israeli Custody Starting From October 2023, Israeli Data Reveals

Based on figures released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody since October 2023. A human rights group located in Israel has indicated that the actual number is almost certainly significantly larger, due to many of unaccounted for individuals from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented fatalities caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts used official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities released complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, reported numbers show an historically high death toll among detained Palestinians, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces most recently revised information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Researchers discovered another 35 fatalities in detention following these timeframes and verified them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the overall count of fatalities charted being much greater than other recent estimates, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of losses among Palestinians, per the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet people who lost their lives in custody that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel investigation.

During May of the current year, a defense forces registry following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded merely 21 casualties in confinement. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over 24 months of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly referenced inadequate food and an underground jail detaining detainees who never see daylight.

Current and former inmates and informants from the Israeli military have collectively claimed systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse came with a alarming increase in fatalities recorded across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the war, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This is not just an individual case here and there. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” an official said, partly since there is a environment of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to 210 days. An attempt to try other suspects over a vicious assault including assault caused political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now demanding that charges against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been arrested,” the official said. “There are no charges over any fatality.

“While these policies remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in custody is at peril, also the physically well individuals, also the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, such as a senior healthcare leader who died in confinement after four months in confinement.

An inmate incarcerated with the individual testified that he was brought to the courtyard by prison staff shortly before his demise, visibly injured and naked from the lower body. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Detention administrators and military provided investigators with the number of casualties in custody, and minimal further data including the facility where they lost their lives, but without the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly detainees from Gaza, analysts were not able to correlate the minimal data provided by government bodies to a casualty documented by human rights groups, either through statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the media.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate detainees it is confining. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the armed services declined to provide basic information about the condition of thousands of individuals held in Gaza, in effect implementing a approach of forced disappearance, as stated by the human rights group.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, government bodies have provided an email address for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on