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According to information from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinian individuals have perished while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has indicated that the true toll is almost certainly significantly larger, because of many of missing detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation recorded casualties resulting from brutality, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Investigators utilized official data requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with legal representatives, advocates, relatives, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed comprehensive information only for the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, official figures indicate an unprecedented death toll among detained Palestinians, averaging one death each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

The military last updated data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Researchers documented another 35 deaths in detention following these timeframes and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the overall count of casualties documented being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it almost certainly fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian loss, per the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he stated. “We are certain that there are still individuals who died in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information shows that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, based on a related investigation.

In May of 2024, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 listed people, recorded merely 21 fatalities in confinement. At that time, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Prison Situation

Assault, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities over the duration of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly referenced starvation rations and an underground jail detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities documented across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years preceding the hostilities, there were on average a couple casualties a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” an official said, partly because there is a culture of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Just one case of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to charge additional individuals over a severe beating including assault caused right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“Despite this significant total of casualties, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative noted. “There are no prosecutions over any killing.

“As long as these measures remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in custody is in danger, even the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in confinement have been high profile, including a middle-aged medical chief who died in confinement after four months in confinement.

A detainee held with the individual reported that he was led to the courtyard by prison staff just prior to his death, obviously hurt and unclothed from the lower body. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. Correctional authorities and military supplied researchers with the number of deaths in custody, and basic further data including the site where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, researchers were unable to correlate the limited information provided by officials to a casualty documented by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from released detainees or coverage in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has impeded efforts to track detainees it is confining. Over half a year at the start of the conflict, the armed services refused to give essential data about the status of many of persons held in Gaza, practically implementing a approach of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

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