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Based on figures released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have died during detention starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has indicated that the actual figure is likely considerably higher, due to hundreds of unaccounted for individuals in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented deaths caused by physical violence, medical neglect, and starvation. Investigators utilized transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources provided comprehensive data only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Over this period, government statistics reveal an unprecedented death toll among Palestinian detainees, averaging a single fatality every four days.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces finalized information on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators discovered another 35 casualties in detention following these timeframes and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the total number of deaths recorded being much greater than previous assessments, it likely omits the entire scope of Palestinian loss, per the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are presenting proof for a higher number of casualties than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he stated. “We are confident that there are yet individuals who perished in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential Israeli data suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, per a parallel examination.

During May of this year, a armed services record following all combatants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 listed people, documented only 21 deaths in custody. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in prison.

Detention Conditions

Assault, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s prison network over the duration of war. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Current and former detainees and informants from the armed services have uniformly asserted systemic violations of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities registered across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the war, there were usually several casualties a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident here and there. It is institutional and it will continue,” a representative said, partly because there is a environment of near total impunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of beating detainees has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to try other suspects over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence resulted in right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this large quantity of deaths, over two years not one individual has been arrested,” the official noted. “There are no charges over any death.

“During the time these practices are being applied, every Palestinian in detention is in danger, even the physically well individuals, even the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in confinement have been high profile, such as a 50-year-old hospital director who died in detention after a third of a year in confinement.

An inmate incarcerated with the victim stated that he was brought to the yard by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and unclothed from the waist down. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. The prison service and armed services supplied researchers with the figure of deaths in custody, and limited other details including the site where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly individuals from Gaza, analysts could not to correlate the few details given by government bodies to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, by means of testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinian individuals it is holding. For seven months at the start of the war, the defense forces declined to provide fundamental details about the status of thousands of individuals detained in Gaza, in effect implementing a practice of involuntary missing persons, according to the human rights group.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, authorities have provided an email address for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on