🔗 Share this article

According to information provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while detained since October 2023. A human rights group located in Israel has reported that the actual figure is likely significantly greater, as a result of numerous of unaccounted for people originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation recorded fatalities caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Researchers employed transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with lawyers, activists, relatives, and observers.

Government bodies provided comprehensive information solely covering the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures reveal an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, amounting to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service by September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 casualties in detention following these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the overall count of casualties recorded being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the full scale of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

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

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential official information indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous investigation.

By May of this year, a military intelligence database following all fighters in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed merely 21 deaths in confinement. At that time, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s prison network over the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced inadequate food and an underground jail detaining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have all alleged systemic violations of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The organized mistreatment came with a disturbing rise in fatalities recorded across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the conflict, there were typically a couple casualties a year.

“This is not merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson commented, partly since there is a culture of near total impunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking detainees has reached litigation, with the military personnel sentenced to half a year. A endeavor to charge others over a severe beating featuring sexual violence caused political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the accused individuals now insisting that charges against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“Despite this mass number of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no charges over any fatality.

“While these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, including the physically well individuals, also the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been publicly known, such as a middle-aged hospital director who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in custody.

A detainee detained alongside the individual stated that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, obviously hurt and naked from the hips downward. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces supplied researchers with the figure of casualties in detention, and basic additional information such as the facility where they perished, but without the detainees’ identities.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, analysts could not to match the minimal data provided by officials to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, either through testimony from former inmates or reporting in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinian individuals it is holding. During 210 days at the beginning of the hostilities, the armed services would not provide to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of numerous of people detained in Gaza, in effect carrying out a approach of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

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