🔗 Share this article

According to figures provided by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died while detained since October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the true number is probably substantially higher, due to hundreds of disappeared individuals from Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report documented casualties attributed to physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts used official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, family members, and observers.

Official sources provided complete statistics solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. During this time, official figures indicate an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost every four days.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces finalized records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 fatalities in custody following these timeframes and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the total number of casualties charted being significantly higher than previous assessments, it almost certainly omits the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are offering documentation for a higher number of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are confident that there are still detainees who perished in custody that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Restricted Israeli data shows that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in jail were ordinary citizens, per a related investigation.

During May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all fighters in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 deaths in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s jail system during two years of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an underground jail detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Current and former prisoners and informants from the armed services have collectively claimed widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

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

“This isn’t just an individual case here and there. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official commented, partly because there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has reached litigation, with the service member sentenced to half a year. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault including abuse resulted in public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, throughout the conflict not a single person has been detained,” the representative noted. “There have been no indictments over any fatality.

“As long as these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in custody is in danger, even the physically well individuals, also the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in confinement have been widely reported, for instance a 50-year-old medical chief who perished in confinement after 120 days in confinement.

A detainee held with the individual testified that he was led to the yard by correctional officers shortly before his passing, obviously hurt and naked from the lower body. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who perished in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Detention administrators and defense forces supplied investigators with the total of fatalities in detention, and basic other details for example the facility where they perished, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, analysts were unable to match the limited information provided by government bodies to a death registered by advocacy bodies, either through accounts from freed prisoners or accounts in the press.

The detainees’ families may not know about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinians it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the armed services would not provide to supply basic information about the status of thousands of people detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a practice of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, officials have established an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on