A Minimum of 98 Palestinian Individuals Lost Their Lives in Custody Starting From October 2023, Official Figures Indicates

Based on data released by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has stated that the real figure is almost certainly significantly higher, because of hundreds of unaccounted for people from Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report tracked deaths attributed to assault, lack of healthcare, and malnutrition. Researchers employed official data requests, forensic reports, and discussions with attorneys, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities provided detailed statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, government statistics show an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces last updated data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Analysts documented an additional 35 fatalities in confinement subsequent to these timeframes and verified them with Israeli authorities.

Even with the aggregate figure of fatalities documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely omits the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, according to the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“While we are providing evidence for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet individuals who died in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were civilians, based on a parallel inquiry.

During May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, documented just 21 fatalities in custody. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in prison.

Detention Conditions

Assault, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system during the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted starvation rations and an underground jail detaining Palestinians who never see daylight.

Current and former prisoners and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a disturbing rise in casualties registered across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the hostilities, there were usually several deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official stated, partially because there is a environment of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking detainees has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to half a year. A endeavor to prosecute others over a brutal attack involving sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that charges against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict no one has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There exist no prosecutions over any death.

“While these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in detention is at peril, including the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Certain fatalities in confinement have been widely reported, such as a senior healthcare leader who died in prison after four months in custody.

A prisoner held with the deceased reported that he was led to the courtyard by prison staff just prior to his death, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Detention administrators and armed services provided researchers with the figure of deaths in detention, and limited additional information including the facility where they perished, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers could not to connect the limited information provided by officials to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, by means of accounts from former inmates or reporting in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to track Palestinians it is holding. Over half a year at the outset of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to give fundamental details about the condition of many of people detained in Gaza, practically carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the human rights group.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, officials have provided an digital correspondence for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on