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Based on data from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died while detained starting from October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has reported that the actual figure is probably significantly larger, as a result of hundreds of disappeared people in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study tracked deaths attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts used freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources disclosed comprehensive data solely covering the first eight months of the conflict. Over this period, official figures show an historically high death toll among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost every four days.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces most recently revised information on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service by September 2024. Investigators documented an additional 35 casualties in detention after these timeframes and validated them with government bodies.

Even with the total number of deaths recorded being much greater than other recent estimates, it almost certainly omits the full scale of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a larger total of casualties than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet individuals who perished in confinement that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified government records shows that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, based on a related investigation.

During May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, documented only 21 deaths in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in prison.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities over the duration of war. Senior officials have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past prisoners and informants from the armed services have all alleged routine infractions of global standards.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a disturbing rise in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade before the war, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson said, partly since there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Just one case of assaulting prisoners has proceeded to court, with the military personnel sentenced to seven months. An effort to try others over a vicious assault involving abuse caused public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of deaths, during 24 months not a single person has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no prosecutions over any killing.

“During the time these measures are being applied, every Palestinian in custody is in danger, even the physically well individuals, also the youth who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in detention have been widely reported, such as a middle-aged hospital director who perished in detention after four months in custody.

A prisoner detained alongside the deceased stated that he was led to the exercise area by correctional officers shortly before his demise, obviously hurt and naked from the lower body. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. The prison service and military provided researchers with the number of casualties in confinement, and basic other details such as the location where they died, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, primarily people from Gaza, investigators were not able to match the limited information supplied by government bodies to a casualty documented by rights organisations, via accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the media.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinians it is confining. For seven months at the outset of the hostilities, the defense forces refused to provide basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of people detained in Gaza, in effect enacting a policy of involuntary missing persons, according to the human rights group.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, officials have created an email address for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on