A Minimum of 98 Palestinians Have Died in Custody Since October 2023, Israeli Data Indicates
According to information provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have died while detained since October 2023. A human rights group located in Israel has indicated that the actual toll is probably substantially larger, as a result of many of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.
Investigation Outcomes
A new investigation tracked deaths resulting from assault, medical neglect, and starvation. Analysts utilized freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with legal representatives, human rights defenders, next of kin, and observers.
Official sources disclosed comprehensive information only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Throughout these months, reported numbers reveal an record casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to one death each 96 hours.
Updated Statistics
Israeli defense forces last updated information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 deaths in detention following these timeframes and validated them with government bodies.
Even with the aggregate figure of fatalities documented being much greater than previous assessments, it probably does not reflect the complete extent of Palestinian loss, as stated by the director of the detainee affairs unit.
“Although we are offering documentation for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still detainees who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, per a parallel inquiry.
In May of 2024, a defense forces registry tracking all militants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 identified persons, documented merely 21 casualties in custody. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in detention.
Detention Conditions
Brutality, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities throughout two years of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.
Existing and previous detainees and informants from the Israeli military have collectively claimed widespread breaches of global standards.
Systemic Abuse
The institutionalised cruelty came with a disturbing rise in deaths registered across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years preceding the war, there were on average several fatalities a year.
“This does not represent only a single occurrence here and there. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson stated, in part since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating detainees.
Merely one incident of assaulting detainees has come to trial, with the soldier handed a punishment to seven months. An attempt to try other suspects over a brutal attack including abuse caused public rallies and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now insisting that indictments against them be dismissed.
Absence of Consequences
“Regardless of this significant total of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.
“While these policies remain in effect, every Palestinian in detention is at peril, including the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no health problems.”
High-Profile Cases
Several casualties in detention have been widely reported, such as a 50-year-old medical chief who perished in prison after four months in confinement.
A detainee incarcerated with the deceased reported that he was led to the courtyard by correctional officers shortly before his death, visibly injured and naked from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.
Further inmates who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided researchers with the number of casualties in confinement, and basic additional information such as the site where they lost their lives, but excluding the detainees’ identities.
Recognition Difficulties
Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers could not to connect the few details provided by officials to a casualty recorded by advocacy bodies, either through testimony from released detainees or accounts in the press.
The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is confining. For seven months at the beginning of the hostilities, the Israeli military would not provide to provide basic information about the whereabouts of many of persons detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of unacknowledged detention, per the rights monitoring body.
Restricted Access
Starting in May 2024, officials have established an electronic contact for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on
