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Based on information provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have died while in custody since October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has indicated that the actual toll is probably considerably higher, because of hundreds of unaccounted for people originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation documented casualties attributed to physical violence, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Researchers utilized freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with attorneys, advocates, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources disclosed complete information solely covering the opening period of the conflict. Throughout these months, government statistics indicate an record fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

Official armed forces most recently revised data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Investigators identified another 35 fatalities in detention subsequent to these dates and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the overall count of casualties charted being substantially larger than previous assessments, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian loss, according to the director of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are presenting proof for a greater figure of casualties than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet people who perished in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Confidential official information suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in jail were civilians, based on a parallel examination.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry tracking all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, recorded merely 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over the duration of conflict. Top government figures have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Current and former inmates and informants from the armed services have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse came with a alarming increase in deaths registered across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were on average a couple fatalities a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence sporadically. It is widespread and it will continue,” a spokesperson commented, in part due to the fact there is a climate of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the service member given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to charge other suspects over a brutal attack featuring assault resulted in political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that charges against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“Despite this large quantity of casualties, during 24 months not one individual has been arrested,” the representative stated. “There exist no charges over any fatality.

“As long as these policies are being applied, each Palestinian individual in custody is in danger, also the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in detention have been high profile, for instance a middle-aged hospital director who died in prison after a third of a year in confinement.

A detainee detained alongside the deceased testified that he was led to the yard by prison staff immediately preceding his passing, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided researchers with the figure of casualties in confinement, and minimal additional information including the site where they lost their lives, but not the detainees’ identities.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers were not able to connect the few details provided by authorities to a casualty documented by rights organisations, via accounts from released detainees or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinian individuals it is detaining. For seven months at the start of the war, the armed services refused to supply basic information about the whereabouts of many of people detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, government bodies have provided an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on