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Per data from Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody starting from October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the true toll is probably considerably higher, because of hundreds of missing people in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation documented casualties caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and malnutrition. Analysts employed official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies provided detailed data solely covering the first eight months of the war. Over this period, government statistics show an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces last updated data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Analysts discovered an additional 35 casualties in custody following these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of deaths documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it almost certainly omits the entire scope of losses among Palestinians, per the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are even now detainees who died in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Restricted official information suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, per a related inquiry.

In May of 2024, a armed services record tracking all fighters in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded just 21 casualties in detention. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in jail.

Prison Situation

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities throughout the duration of conflict. Senior officials have openly admitted starvation rations and an underground jail holding Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Current and former prisoners and informants from the defense forces have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the conflict, there were usually several fatalities a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence here and there. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” an official commented, partially because there is a environment of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of attacking detainees has come to trial, with the soldier given a penalty to seven months. An effort to charge others over a vicious assault including assault resulted in right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now demanding that allegations against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this mass number of deaths, over two years not one individual has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There are no indictments over any death.

“As long as these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in custody is at peril, even the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in custody have been widely reported, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who died in prison after four months in confinement.

A prisoner held with the individual stated that he was brought to the courtyard by guards shortly before his demise, visibly injured and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military supplied analysts with the figure of casualties in custody, and basic further data including the site where they lost their lives, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, investigators could not to connect the limited information provided by government bodies to a death documented by human rights groups, via accounts from released detainees or accounts in the press.

The detainees’ families could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has made it difficult to track detainees it is detaining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the Israeli military declined to supply fundamental details about the whereabouts of numerous of persons held in Gaza, effectively implementing a approach of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, officials have provided an digital correspondence for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on