🔗 Share this article

Based on figures provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have perished while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has stated that the true figure is likely substantially greater, because of many of disappeared people in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation recorded casualties caused by assault, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Researchers utilized freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with legal representatives, advocates, next of kin, and witnesses.

Government bodies provided detailed information solely covering the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures show an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Investigators identified another 35 fatalities in detention following these dates and verified them with official sources.

Even with the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the entire scope of losses among Palestinians, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are offering documentation for a greater figure of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are yet individuals who died in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted official information suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in prison were non-combatants, according to a simultaneous inquiry.

In May of this year, a armed services record tracking all fighters in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded only 21 casualties in confinement. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in jail.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, abuse, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities over two years of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison holding detainees who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous inmates and insiders from the Israeli military have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a alarming increase in casualties documented across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were usually a couple casualties a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a representative said, partly due to the fact there is a climate of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Just one case of assaulting inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. A endeavor to try others over a severe beating including sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now demanding that indictments against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this significant total of casualties, throughout the conflict no one has been detained,” the official stated. “There exist no charges over any killing.

“As long as these practices are being applied, every Palestinian in custody is in danger, including the physically well individuals, even the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in detention have been publicly known, including a senior healthcare leader who perished in detention after four months in custody.

An inmate detained alongside the deceased reported that he was led to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his passing, visibly injured and exposed from the hips downward. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave analysts with the total of casualties in custody, and basic additional information including the site where they died, but excluding the detainees’ identities.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly people from Gaza, researchers were not able to correlate the minimal data provided by authorities to a fatality recorded by rights organisations, via accounts from released detainees or reporting in the press.

The detainees’ families may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has made it difficult to track Palestinians it is confining. For seven months at the beginning of the war, the defense forces would not provide to provide basic information about the condition of thousands of individuals held in Gaza, in effect carrying out a approach of involuntary missing persons, according to the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, authorities have established an email address for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on