🔗 Share this article

According to information from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died during detention starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has indicated that the real figure is probably considerably higher, as a result of hundreds of disappeared detainees from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked casualties attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used official data requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with attorneys, advocates, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed complete statistics solely covering the opening period of the war. Over this period, government statistics reveal an record fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Researchers documented a further 35 fatalities in detention subsequent to these periods and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Although the total number of deaths charted being significantly higher than earlier projections, it probably fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian loss, as stated by the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of casualties than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet individuals who perished in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted government records shows that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous investigation.

By May of this year, a armed services record following all militants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 fatalities in confinement. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, abuse, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network during 24 months of conflict. Senior officials have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison holding detainees who are kept in darkness.

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

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a disturbing rise in casualties documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade before the conflict, there were on average a couple casualties a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident here and there. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official said, partially since there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has reached litigation, with the soldier handed a punishment to half a year. An effort to charge additional individuals over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that indictments against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this mass number of deaths, over two years no one has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There exist no charges over any killing.

“While these measures are being applied, each Palestinian individual in confinement is in danger, also the healthy ones, including the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in detention have been widely reported, for instance a middle-aged healthcare leader who died in prison after 120 days in confinement.

An inmate held with the individual reported that he was brought to the exercise area by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, visibly injured and exposed from the hips downward. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Detention administrators and military gave analysts with the figure of deaths in confinement, and limited other details for example the location where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mainly individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to match the minimal data given by government bodies to a death registered by human rights groups, either through testimony from former inmates or coverage in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to provide essential data about the whereabouts of thousands of individuals confined in Gaza, in effect carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, authorities have created an email address for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a incomplete and restricted improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on