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Based on information from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while detained since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the true number is likely significantly larger, as a result of many of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation documented casualties resulting from brutality, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies provided detailed data only for the first eight months of the conflict. Throughout these months, official figures show an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to one death every four days.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces last updated information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 deaths in confinement after these dates and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the total number of deaths recorded being significantly higher than earlier projections, it probably omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, according to the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a higher number of casualties than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are confident that there are yet people who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified official information indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in prison were civilians, per a parallel investigation.

During May of the current year, a armed services record tracking all fighters in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 identified persons, listed just 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Brutality, abuse, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities throughout the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Present and past inmates and informants from the armed services have collectively claimed widespread breaches of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade before the war, there were usually several fatalities a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, partially because there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Merely one incident of attacking detainees has come to trial, with the soldier handed a punishment to half a year. An attempt to charge others over a brutal attack including assault caused right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that charges against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, over two years not one individual has been detained,” the representative said. “There exist no charges over any killing.

“As long as these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in custody is at peril, including the physically well individuals, including the young ones who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in custody have been publicly known, such as a senior hospital director who lost his life in prison after four months in detention.

An inmate incarcerated with the deceased testified that he was taken to the yard by prison staff shortly before his demise, visibly injured and exposed from the waist down. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. The prison service and military supplied researchers with the total of fatalities in custody, and minimal additional information including the location where they perished, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, analysts were not able to connect the few details provided by officials to a fatality documented by rights organisations, either through statements from former inmates or accounts in the press.

The detainees’ families may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the defense forces would not provide to supply basic information about the status of many of individuals confined in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, according to the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, officials have established an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on