🔗 Share this article

Per information provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have died while detained beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has indicated that the true figure is probably considerably greater, due to hundreds of unaccounted for people in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked deaths caused by assault, medical neglect, and starvation. Investigators employed freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and witnesses.

Government bodies disclosed complete statistics solely covering the opening period of the conflict. Throughout these months, reported numbers indicate an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost once every four-day period.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces last updated data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 fatalities in custody subsequent to these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the overall count of deaths charted being much greater than earlier projections, it probably fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, per the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a greater figure of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are confident that there are still individuals who lost their lives in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information suggests that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in prison were ordinary citizens, per a related investigation.

During May of the current year, a defense forces registry following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, recorded just 21 deaths in confinement. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Brutality, abuse, and further cruelty of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s prison network during the duration of hostilities. Top government figures have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center confining detainees who are denied sunlight.

Present and past prisoners and whistleblowers from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities recorded across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade preceding the conflict, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” an official stated, partly due to the fact there is a climate of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating detainees has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to 210 days. An effort to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack involving assault resulted in public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict no one has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There are no indictments over any fatality.

“As long as these measures are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in custody is at peril, even the those in good health, including the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in confinement have been widely reported, such as a senior medical chief who died in detention after 120 days in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the individual reported that he was taken to the courtyard by guards immediately preceding his demise, visibly injured and naked from the hips downward. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided investigators with the figure of deaths in detention, and minimal additional information such as the facility where they died, but not the detainees’ identities.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers were unable to connect the minimal data supplied by authorities to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, by means of statements from released detainees or coverage in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is confining. During 210 days at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to provide essential data about the status of many of individuals held in Gaza, practically carrying out a practice of forced disappearance, according to the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, government bodies have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on