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Based on information from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have died while detained beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has stated that the actual number is probably substantially higher, because of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees from Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study tracked deaths resulting from physical violence, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts utilized freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with legal representatives, activists, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed complete statistics solely covering the first eight months of the conflict. Throughout these months, government statistics indicate an historically high death toll among detained Palestinians, amounting to one death each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Analysts identified another 35 casualties in confinement after these dates and verified them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the aggregate figure of deaths charted being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a greater figure of casualties than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are sure that there are still individuals who died in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified Israeli data indicates that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in detention were non-combatants, according to a related inquiry.

During May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in prison.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over two years of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a alarming increase in casualties documented across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, in part because there is a environment of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Only a single instance of beating detainees has proceeded to court, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. An effort to prosecute additional individuals over a vicious assault involving assault led to public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that charges against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this significant total of casualties, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative stated. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.

“During the time these practices are being applied, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, including the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in confinement have been high profile, such as a middle-aged medical chief who lost his life in detention after 120 days in custody.

A detainee incarcerated with the individual stated that he was led to the exercise area by guards shortly before his death, clearly wounded and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. Detention administrators and military provided investigators with the figure of casualties in custody, and basic further data including the site where they perished, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, researchers were not able to match the limited information provided by officials to a death documented by human rights groups, via testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has made it difficult to track detainees it is detaining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the armed services refused to give fundamental details about the whereabouts of thousands of individuals detained in Gaza, in effect carrying out a practice of forced disappearance, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

From May 2024, officials have provided an electronic contact for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on