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According to figures from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained since October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has stated that the real figure is likely substantially greater, because of many of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented fatalities resulting from physical violence, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used official data requests, forensic reports, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, relatives, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities released detailed statistics limited to the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, government statistics reveal an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

The military most recently revised records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators documented a further 35 deaths in confinement after these dates and confirmed them with official sources.

Although the overall count of fatalities recorded being much greater than earlier projections, it likely does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are certain that there are even now people who died in custody that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted official information suggests that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in prison were ordinary citizens, according to a parallel examination.

By May of 2024, a armed services record tracking all militants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 identified persons, documented just 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in detention.

Prison Situation

Brutality, abuse, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout two years of war. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison detaining detainees who never see daylight.

Current and former inmates and insiders from the Israeli military have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse came with a troubling surge in fatalities recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade preceding the conflict, there were usually a couple deaths a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a representative stated, in part because there is a environment of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of attacking inmates has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to 210 days. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault including sexual violence caused public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now requesting that allegations against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, over two years no one has been detained,” the official said. “There are no charges over any fatality.

“While these policies continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is at peril, even the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in custody have been widely reported, including a senior medical chief who died in detention after four months in detention.

An inmate incarcerated with the individual testified that he was brought to the yard by guards just prior to his death, obviously hurt and exposed from the lower body. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in Israeli custody stay unnamed. The prison service and defense forces gave analysts with the total of casualties in confinement, and minimal additional information for example the location where they died, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mainly people from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the limited information supplied by government bodies to a death registered by human rights groups, by means of statements from released detainees or accounts in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has created obstacles to track detainees it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to give basic information about the condition of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, practically carrying out a practice of unacknowledged detention, per the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

From May 2024, authorities have provided an electronic contact for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on