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Per data from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has reported that the actual figure is almost certainly significantly greater, because of hundreds of disappeared detainees from Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report recorded casualties caused by brutality, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with legal representatives, advocates, family members, and observers.

Israeli authorities provided complete information only for the opening period of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures indicate an unprecedented death toll among detained Palestinians, equating to a single fatality once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

The military last updated information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Investigators discovered a further 35 fatalities in custody subsequent to these periods and validated them with official sources.

Despite the total number of fatalities recorded being significantly higher than previous assessments, it likely fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian loss, according to the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a higher number of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are certain that there are even now detainees who lost their lives in detention that we have not identified.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified official information indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in prison were ordinary citizens, per a parallel examination.

By May of the current year, a military intelligence database tracking all militants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 fatalities in detention. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in prison.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, mistreatment, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system during two years of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an underground jail confining detainees who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous prisoners and insiders from the armed services have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a troubling surge in fatalities recorded across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the war, there were usually a couple fatalities a year.

“This is not merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a representative stated, partially since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.

Only a single instance of assaulting inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to 210 days. An effort to charge additional individuals over a severe beating featuring abuse caused public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that charges against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this mass number of deaths, during 24 months no one has been arrested,” the representative stated. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.

“As long as these policies remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in confinement faces risk, including the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in detention have been widely reported, such as a senior hospital director who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in custody.

A prisoner held with the deceased reported that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, visibly injured and naked from the lower body. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. The prison service and armed services provided researchers with the total of casualties in custody, and minimal further data including the location where they lost their lives, but not the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were unable to connect the few details provided by officials to a fatality recorded by advocacy bodies, via statements from former inmates or reporting in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinian individuals it is holding. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the Israeli military refused to provide essential data about the condition of numerous of people confined in Gaza, in effect implementing a practice of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the human rights group.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an electronic contact for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on