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According to figures released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has stated that the actual toll is likely significantly larger, because of numerous of missing people originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation documented fatalities attributed to brutality, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers employed official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, human rights defenders, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed comprehensive data only for the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, official figures reveal an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, averaging one death once every four-day period.

Latest Data

Official armed forces last updated records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Investigators discovered an additional 35 casualties in detention following these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Even with the aggregate figure of casualties charted being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian loss, as stated by the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are sure that there are yet people who lost their lives in custody that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified Israeli data suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in prison were ordinary citizens, per a related investigation.

By May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in jail.

Prison Situation

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities throughout the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Present and past prisoners and informants from the armed services have collectively claimed systemic violations of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a alarming increase in deaths documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were on average a couple deaths a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence sporadically. It is institutional and it will continue,” a spokesperson commented, partly because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Merely one incident of beating prisoners has reached litigation, with the service member given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to try other suspects over a severe beating including abuse led to political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, throughout the conflict not a single person has faced arrest,” the spokesperson said. “There exist no prosecutions over any death.

“During the time these measures remain in effect, every Palestinian in confinement is in danger, even the physically well individuals, also the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in detention have been widely reported, such as a senior hospital director who died in prison after 120 days in custody.

An inmate detained alongside the individual reported that he was taken to the courtyard by guards immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and unclothed from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military gave researchers with the figure of deaths in custody, and minimal further data including the site where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, primarily detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the minimal data given by government bodies to a death registered by rights organisations, via statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate detainees it is detaining. During 210 days at the start of the conflict, the Israeli military would not provide to provide basic information about the condition of numerous of persons detained in Gaza, practically enacting a policy of unacknowledged detention, per the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, government bodies have provided an electronic contact for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on