🔗 Share this article

Based on figures provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while detained starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the true figure is likely substantially higher, due to many of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report documented deaths caused by assault, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts used freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with attorneys, activists, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources provided detailed information only for the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, government statistics indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces finalized data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Investigators documented an additional 35 deaths in confinement following these timeframes and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it probably omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a higher number of deaths than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are still people who lost their lives in custody that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified official information suggests that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in jail were non-combatants, based on a parallel examination.

In May of the current year, a armed services record tracking all combatants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, documented only 21 deaths in detention. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in detention.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over 24 months of conflict. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Current and former detainees and insiders from the Israeli military have collectively claimed routine infractions of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a disturbing rise in casualties recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade before the war, there were on average several casualties a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident here and there. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson commented, partially due to the fact there is a climate of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Just one case of assaulting prisoners has come to trial, with the soldier given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to prosecute additional individuals over a vicious assault involving assault led to right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now demanding that indictments against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this significant total of fatalities, throughout the conflict not a single person has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There are no indictments over any fatality.

“While these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in custody faces risk, also the those in good health, including the young ones who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in custody have been publicly known, including a senior hospital director who died in detention after a third of a year in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the individual reported that he was brought to the yard by correctional officers shortly before his demise, visibly injured and exposed from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Detention administrators and armed services provided researchers with the number of casualties in detention, and minimal other details such as the location where they lost their lives, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mostly people from Gaza, researchers were unable to match the limited information supplied by officials to a fatality recorded 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 impeded efforts to monitor Palestinian individuals it is confining. Over half a year at the outset of the conflict, the Israeli military declined to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of thousands of individuals held in Gaza, in effect carrying out a practice of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, authorities have created an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on