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Per figures from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have perished while in custody since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has stated that the true figure is almost certainly significantly greater, due to many of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked deaths caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, next of kin, and observers.

Official sources provided detailed statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, official figures show an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to a life lost each 96 hours.

Latest Data

The military most recently revised information on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Analysts identified a further 35 deaths in confinement subsequent to these dates and confirmed them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of casualties recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it almost certainly fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian loss, according to the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a larger total of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are confident that there are yet individuals who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted official information suggests that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in prison were ordinary citizens, according to a related investigation.

In May of this year, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 identified persons, documented only 21 deaths in custody. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s prison network throughout the duration of hostilities. Senior officials have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an underground jail holding Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Current and former detainees and insiders from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse came with a alarming increase in casualties documented across at least 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade preceding the hostilities, there were on average a couple fatalities a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson commented, in part because there is a environment of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating prisoners has come to trial, with the soldier handed a punishment to seven months. A endeavor to prosecute others over a severe beating involving sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, over two years no one has faced arrest,” the official said. “There are no indictments over any death.

“During the time these policies remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in custody is at peril, even the physically well individuals, even the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, including a 50-year-old hospital director who perished in prison after 120 days in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the individual reported that he was led to the yard by prison staff just prior to his demise, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in Israeli custody stay unnamed. The prison service and military gave investigators with the total of fatalities in custody, and limited further data including the location where they lost their lives, but not the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, researchers were not able to correlate the limited information given by government bodies to a death documented by human rights groups, by means of testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinians it is holding. During 210 days at the beginning of the war, the defense forces refused to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of many of individuals detained in Gaza, practically carrying out a practice of forced disappearance, according to the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Beginning last May, officials have created an email address for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on