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According to information provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the real figure is probably significantly greater, as a result of hundreds of missing people originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented fatalities caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators used official data requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, relatives, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities released complete information solely covering the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures indicate an record death toll among detained Palestinians, averaging a life lost each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Analysts identified an additional 35 casualties in confinement following these periods and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the total number of casualties charted being significantly higher than previous assessments, it almost certainly omits the complete extent of Palestinian loss, per the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a higher number of fatalities than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are sure that there are still individuals who died in detention that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in prison were non-combatants, based on a parallel examination.

In May of the current year, a armed services record tracking all combatants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, abuse, and other abuse of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over 24 months of hostilities. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Existing and previous inmates and insiders from the armed services have uniformly asserted routine infractions of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a troubling surge in fatalities recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade prior to the war, there were on average several casualties a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson stated, partially since there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Only a single instance of beating inmates has proceeded to court, with the soldier given a penalty to 210 days. A endeavor to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack involving sexual violence resulted in public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, over two years not one individual has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There are no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these policies are being applied, each Palestinian individual in custody is at peril, even the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, such as a 50-year-old hospital director who died in confinement after four months in custody.

A prisoner incarcerated with the deceased reported that he was brought to the courtyard by guards just prior to his passing, obviously hurt and unclothed from the lower body. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave investigators with the figure of deaths in confinement, and minimal other details such as the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, primarily people from Gaza, investigators were unable to connect the few details supplied by authorities to a casualty registered by human rights groups, via testimony from former inmates or accounts in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has created obstacles to locate Palestinian individuals it is detaining. For seven months at the outset of the war, the defense forces declined to give fundamental details about the status of thousands of individuals detained in Gaza, in effect enacting a policy of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, authorities have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on