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Per data provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has reported that the real number is almost certainly substantially larger, because of many of disappeared detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study tracked deaths caused by brutality, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Analysts utilized transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided complete data solely covering the opening period of the war. Throughout these months, official figures show an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces most recently revised data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Researchers discovered an additional 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these dates and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the overall count of casualties charted being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of deaths than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are sure that there are still individuals who died in custody that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in jail were ordinary citizens, according to a parallel inquiry.

During May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, mistreatment, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have collectively claimed widespread breaches of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a disturbing rise in casualties documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the conflict, there were typically two or three fatalities a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson said, partly because there is a culture of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Just one case of beating inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member given a penalty to 210 days. An effort to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault including assault caused right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this mass number of deaths, over two years no one has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There have been no prosecutions over any death.

“During the time these policies remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is at peril, including the healthy ones, also the young ones who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in confinement have been high profile, including a 50-year-old healthcare leader who died in prison after four months in custody.

A detainee held with the deceased reported that he was taken to the courtyard by guards immediately preceding his demise, clearly wounded and unclothed from the lower body. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Detention administrators and military provided researchers with the number of fatalities in confinement, and limited additional information including the facility where they died, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to match the minimal data supplied by officials to a fatality registered by rights organisations, either through accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has created obstacles to track detainees it is confining. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to supply fundamental details about the whereabouts of numerous of individuals detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a policy of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the human rights group.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, officials have established an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on