🔗 Share this article

According to figures released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has stated that the actual toll is probably substantially higher, due to hundreds of missing detainees from Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation documented fatalities caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators employed freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with legal representatives, activists, family members, and witnesses.

Official sources disclosed detailed information solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, official figures indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging a single fatality each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Researchers discovered an additional 35 casualties in confinement following these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Although the aggregate figure of casualties charted being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, per the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a larger total of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are confident that there are still detainees who lost their lives in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Confidential government records indicates that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a related investigation.

By May of 2024, a armed services record monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 identified persons, listed only 21 fatalities in detention. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities throughout 24 months of hostilities. Top government figures have openly admitted starvation rations and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous detainees and informants from the defense forces have all alleged systemic violations of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment came with a disturbing rise in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the war, there were on average several fatalities a year.

“This is not merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official commented, partially due to the fact there is a climate of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to seven months. A endeavor to charge additional individuals over a severe beating involving abuse resulted in right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now requesting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this significant total of deaths, during 24 months no one has been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “There are no indictments over any fatality.

“While these measures continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, also the healthy ones, also the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in detention have been widely reported, such as a senior medical chief who lost his life in detention after a third of a year in detention.

A prisoner detained alongside the deceased testified that he was taken to the courtyard by guards shortly before his passing, visibly injured and naked from the lower body. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. The prison service and defense forces supplied investigators with the total of casualties in confinement, and limited additional information for example the location where they lost their lives, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly people from Gaza, analysts were unable to connect the limited information provided by government bodies to a death registered by advocacy bodies, by means of accounts from released detainees or coverage in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the war, the armed services would not provide to give fundamental details about the status of many of people detained in Gaza, in effect carrying out a practice of involuntary missing persons, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, authorities have provided an email address for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on