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According to figures from Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has stated that the true toll is likely significantly larger, as a result of hundreds of unaccounted for people originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation recorded casualties attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Analysts used official data requests, medical examiner documents, and discussions with attorneys, advocates, next of kin, and witnesses.

Official sources provided detailed statistics limited to the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, reported numbers show an historically high fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a life lost once every four-day period.

Recent Figures

The military most recently revised information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Analysts identified another 35 fatalities in custody after these periods and confirmed them with official sources.

Even with the overall count of fatalities charted being substantially larger than previous assessments, it almost certainly omits the entire scope of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are confident that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted official information indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were non-combatants, per a parallel investigation.

In May of the current year, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 identified persons, recorded merely 21 casualties in confinement. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Assault, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities throughout 24 months of conflict. Senior officials have publicly referenced inadequate food and an underground jail detaining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Current and former detainees and whistleblowers from the armed services have uniformly asserted routine infractions of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years prior to the conflict, there were usually several deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, partly due to the fact there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Merely one incident of beating prisoners has come to trial, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. An effort to try additional individuals over a brutal attack involving sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this mass number of casualties, throughout the conflict not one individual has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There exist no charges over any killing.

“As long as these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in custody faces risk, including the those in good health, also the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in detention have been high profile, including a senior healthcare leader who died in detention after a third of a year in detention.

An inmate incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the yard by guards immediately preceding his passing, obviously hurt and exposed from the waist down. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Detention administrators and military supplied researchers with the number of casualties in custody, and limited other details such as the facility where they perished, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly people from Gaza, investigators were not able to match the few details supplied by officials to a fatality recorded by rights organisations, either through statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has made it difficult to track detainees it is detaining. Over half a year at the outset of the conflict, the armed services refused to provide essential data about the whereabouts of thousands of people detained in Gaza, in effect enacting a policy of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, government bodies have created an electronic contact for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on