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Based on data from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has stated that the real figure is probably significantly greater, as a result of numerous of unaccounted for people in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study recorded casualties caused by brutality, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Researchers utilized transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, next of kin, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed detailed statistics solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. During this time, official figures show an record casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a life lost once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

The military finalized information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Researchers identified an additional 35 casualties in detention following these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Although the aggregate figure of deaths charted being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of Palestinian casualties, per the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are sure that there are yet people who lost their lives in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential Israeli data shows that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in prison were non-combatants, per a related inquiry.

In May of this year, a military intelligence database following all militants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 listed people, listed only 21 deaths in custody. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in detention.

Detention Conditions

Assault, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over two years of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past prisoners and whistleblowers from the defense forces have collectively claimed systemic violations of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a alarming increase in fatalities documented across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the conflict, there were on average several deaths a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a representative commented, in part since there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Merely one incident of beating detainees has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. An attempt to charge other suspects over a brutal attack featuring assault resulted in political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this significant total of casualties, throughout the conflict not a single person has been detained,” the spokesperson stated. “There exist no prosecutions over any fatality.

“During the time these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in custody faces risk, including the physically well individuals, including the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, such as a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in detention after 120 days in confinement.

An inmate detained alongside the individual testified that he was taken to the yard by prison staff shortly before his demise, visibly injured and exposed from the lower body. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Detention administrators and defense forces provided investigators with the number of fatalities in detention, and minimal additional information including the facility where they lost their lives, but without the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mainly detainees from Gaza, researchers could not to correlate the minimal data given by officials to a death documented by human rights groups, via testimony from former inmates or reporting in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of many of individuals confined in Gaza, practically carrying out a policy of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, authorities have established an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on