🔗 Share this article

Based on figures from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the actual figure is likely considerably greater, because of numerous of missing people from Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study tracked casualties caused by physical violence, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and discussions with legal representatives, human rights defenders, next of kin, and observers.

Government bodies disclosed detailed statistics only for the opening period of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures indicate an record death toll among Palestinian detainees, amounting to one death each 96 hours.

Latest Data

The military finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Researchers documented another 35 deaths in detention following these periods and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the total number of fatalities charted being much greater than previous assessments, it almost certainly fails to capture the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are confident that there are even now detainees who died in custody that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted government records shows that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were civilians, per a parallel investigation.

During May of 2024, a military intelligence database tracking all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded only 21 deaths in custody. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in jail.

Custodial Environment

Assault, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of conflict. Senior officials have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

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

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths recorded across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade preceding the war, there were on average several casualties a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case here and there. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official said, partly because there is a climate of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Merely one incident of beating detainees has proceeded to court, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack involving sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now requesting that indictments against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict no one has been detained,” the official noted. “There exist no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these measures remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in detention faces risk, including the healthy ones, even the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in custody have been publicly known, for instance a 50-year-old medical chief who died in detention after 120 days in detention.

A prisoner held with the victim stated that he was taken to the courtyard by correctional officers shortly before his passing, visibly injured and exposed from the waist down. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and armed services gave analysts with the figure of deaths in detention, and limited other details including the location where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mainly people from Gaza, analysts were not able to connect the few details supplied by authorities to a casualty registered by rights organisations, via testimony from released detainees or reporting in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the outset of the conflict, the defense forces declined to supply fundamental details about the status of thousands of persons held in Gaza, in effect enacting a practice of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have established an digital correspondence for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on