🔗 Share this article

According to information provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have died while detained starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has stated that the real number is probably significantly higher, due to numerous of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study documented deaths resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used official data requests, forensic reports, and interviews with legal representatives, advocates, relatives, and observers.

Official sources released detailed data only for the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, government statistics indicate an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a single fatality every four days.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service by September 2024. Analysts discovered a further 35 fatalities in custody following these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of fatalities documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the full scale of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are sure that there are yet detainees who died in confinement that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential official information suggests that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in detention were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel inquiry.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry tracking all combatants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 listed people, documented just 21 fatalities in custody. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in prison.

Custodial Environment

Assault, mistreatment, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of conflict. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison confining detainees who are kept in darkness.

Current and former inmates and insiders from the defense forces have all alleged routine infractions of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a troubling surge in fatalities registered across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade preceding the hostilities, there were usually two or three fatalities a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case occasionally. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative stated, in part due to the fact there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking detainees has reached litigation, with the service member given a penalty to half a year. An attempt to prosecute others over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now requesting that charges against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative said. “There have been no charges over any fatality.

“As long as these practices continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in custody faces risk, also the those in good health, also the youth who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in detention have been widely reported, such as a 50-year-old medical chief who perished in detention after 120 days in custody.

A detainee incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was brought to the exercise area by correctional officers just prior to his passing, clearly wounded and exposed from the lower body. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in detention in Israel stay unnamed. The prison service and defense forces supplied analysts with the number of fatalities in detention, and minimal other details for example the facility where they perished, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

For 21 instances, primarily individuals from Gaza, investigators were not able to correlate the limited information supplied by officials to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, either through statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinian individuals it is detaining. Over half a year at the outset of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to provide basic information about the whereabouts of thousands of people detained in Gaza, in effect carrying out a practice of involuntary missing persons, according to the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

From May 2024, authorities have provided an email address for enquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on