No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Detainees Lost Their Lives in Custody Since October 2023, Israeli Data Shows
Based on data from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinian individuals have died during detention starting from October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the real number is likely substantially greater, as a result of many of disappeared people in Gaza.
Study Results
A recent report tracked casualties attributed to brutality, lack of healthcare, and malnutrition. Researchers employed transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, activists, family members, and observers.
Official sources released complete information only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures indicate an historically high fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a life lost every four days.
Recent Figures
Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Analysts discovered an additional 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these timeframes and verified them with government bodies.
Even with the overall count of casualties charted being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it almost certainly omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.
“Even though we are offering documentation for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are sure that there are still detainees who lost their lives in custody that we have not identified.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified Israeli data shows that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in detention were ordinary citizens, based on a related examination.
During May of the current year, a defense forces registry tracking all fighters in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 named individuals, documented only 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.
Detention Conditions
Assault, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s prison network throughout two years of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an underground jail holding detainees who are kept in darkness.
Current and former inmates and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have collectively claimed routine infractions of human rights protocols.
Systemic Abuse
The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a disturbing rise in casualties registered across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the war, there were on average several casualties a year.
“This does not represent merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” an official said, partly since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.
Just one case of attacking detainees has come to trial, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to charge other suspects over a severe beating involving assault led to public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that charges against them are dropped.
Lack of Accountability
“Regardless of this mass number of casualties, over two years not one individual has been arrested,” the representative said. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.
“While these policies are being applied, each Palestinian individual in detention faces risk, also the physically well individuals, including the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”
High-Profile Cases
Certain fatalities in custody have been widely reported, such as a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in prison after 120 days in custody.
A prisoner incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the exercise area by prison staff just prior to his passing, visibly injured and exposed from the waist down. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.
Additional detainees who perished in detention in Israel stay unnamed. The prison service and military supplied analysts with the number of fatalities in custody, and limited further data for example the site where they died, but without the detainees’ identities.
Identification Challenges
In 21 cases, mainly people from Gaza, researchers were not able to connect the minimal data provided by government bodies to a casualty registered by human rights groups, either through accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the news outlets.
The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the hostilities, the Israeli military would not provide to provide fundamental details about the status of thousands of persons held in Gaza, in effect implementing a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the human rights group.
Limited Transparency
From May 2024, government bodies have provided an email address for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on