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Based on data provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have perished while in custody since October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has reported that the true toll is probably significantly larger, because of many of missing detainees in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report recorded casualties resulting from brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with legal representatives, activists, family members, and observers.

Government bodies provided comprehensive information solely covering the first eight months of the war. Throughout these months, official figures show an historically high fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to one death each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces last updated records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Analysts identified a further 35 deaths in detention following these timeframes and confirmed them with government bodies.

Despite the aggregate figure of deaths documented being much greater than earlier projections, it likely omits the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, according to the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are certain that there are even now people who perished in detention that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous investigation.

By May of the current year, a military intelligence database monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 listed people, listed merely 21 fatalities in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in detention.

Prison Situation

Brutality, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s jail system during the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center detaining detainees who never see daylight.

Current and former detainees and informants from the Israeli military have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths registered across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years prior to the conflict, there were typically two or three fatalities a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case here and there. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” an official stated, partly because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Merely one incident of attacking detainees has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to try others over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence caused right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that indictments against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of casualties, over two years no one has been arrested,” the official said. “There have been no indictments over any fatality.

“As long as these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in custody faces risk, even the those in good health, even the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in detention have been publicly known, including a 50-year-old hospital director who lost his life in prison after a third of a year in confinement.

A detainee detained alongside the individual stated that he was led to the exercise area by prison staff just prior to his passing, clearly wounded and exposed from the hips downward. His remains remains unreleased to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military gave researchers with the total of deaths in confinement, and minimal additional information such as the location where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly people from Gaza, investigators were not able to match the few details provided by government bodies to a fatality registered by rights organisations, via statements from former inmates or accounts in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is confining. During 210 days at the start of the war, the defense forces declined to supply essential data about the whereabouts of many of people detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a practice of involuntary missing persons, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, authorities have established an email address for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on