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Based on figures provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have perished while detained beginning in October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has indicated that the real toll is almost certainly substantially higher, due to hundreds of unaccounted for detainees from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation tracked fatalities attributed to brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts used official data requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources provided detailed information limited to the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, government statistics indicate an record fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to one death every four days.

Recent Figures

The military most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Analysts identified another 35 fatalities in custody after these periods and validated them with government bodies.

Even with the total number of deaths charted being significantly higher than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are offering documentation for a larger total of fatalities than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are confident that there are yet detainees who lost their lives in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who died in prison were non-combatants, according to a simultaneous investigation.

By May of the current year, a military intelligence database monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, documented merely 21 deaths in confinement. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in prison.

Detention Conditions

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network throughout the duration of conflict. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted inadequate food and an underground jail holding detainees who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous prisoners and informants from the Israeli military have collectively claimed systemic violations of global standards.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a alarming increase in casualties documented across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the conflict, there were typically a couple deaths a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is institutional and it will continue,” a representative said, in part because there is a environment of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of attacking inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to seven months. An attempt to charge other suspects over a severe beating featuring assault led to political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that charges against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of deaths, over two years no one has been detained,” the official said. “There are no prosecutions over any fatality.

“As long as these policies remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in custody faces risk, also the healthy ones, even the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in detention have been widely reported, including a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in prison after 120 days in custody.

An inmate detained alongside the individual reported that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, obviously hurt and exposed from the hips downward. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. The prison service and defense forces supplied investigators with the figure of fatalities in detention, and minimal other details including the site where they died, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, primarily people from Gaza, analysts were not able to correlate the minimal data supplied by authorities to a casualty registered by rights organisations, by means of statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinians it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the hostilities, the Israeli military declined to supply fundamental details about the whereabouts of many of individuals confined in Gaza, practically enacting a policy of forced disappearance, per the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, authorities have provided an email address for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on