No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Perished in Custody Since October 2023, Official Figures Shows

Based on figures released by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has reported that the real toll is almost certainly substantially greater, due to hundreds of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study recorded casualties caused by brutality, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts used transparency petitions, forensic reports, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.

Government bodies disclosed complete information limited to the first eight months of the conflict. During this time, official figures show an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, averaging one death each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces last updated records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Analysts identified an additional 35 fatalities in confinement following these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the total number of deaths charted being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of losses among Palestinians, according to the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are providing evidence for a larger total of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are certain that there are still people who died in custody that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified government records shows that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in prison were non-combatants, based on a related inquiry.

During May of the current year, a defense forces registry monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, listed merely 21 casualties in confinement. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in jail.

Detention Conditions

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of war. Top government figures have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Current and former prisoners and insiders from the armed services have uniformly asserted routine infractions of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a alarming increase in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the conflict, there were on average several fatalities a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence occasionally. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative said, partly because there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking prisoners has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to seven months. An effort to prosecute others over a vicious assault involving assault resulted in right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this mass number of deaths, during 24 months not one individual has been detained,” the official stated. “There have been no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these policies are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in detention faces risk, also the healthy ones, including the youth who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Some deaths in custody have been publicly known, such as a senior medical chief who perished in detention after 120 days in custody.

A detainee held with the victim stated that he was brought to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and naked from the hips downward. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in confinement by Israeli authorities stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and military provided investigators with the number of fatalities in confinement, and limited additional information including the location where they perished, but not the detainees’ identities.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mainly individuals from Gaza, analysts were unable to match the few details given by authorities to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, by means of testimony from freed prisoners or accounts in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the start of the hostilities, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the condition of numerous of people detained in Gaza, in effect enacting a approach of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Starting in May 2024, authorities have provided an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on