A Minimum of 98 Palestinian Detainees Lost Their Lives in Detention Beginning in October 2023, Israeli Data Reveals

Based on data from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinian individuals have died during detention since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has reported that the real number is likely considerably greater, due to hundreds of unaccounted for people from Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

A new investigation recorded casualties resulting from physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers utilized official data requests, forensic reports, and interviews with attorneys, advocates, relatives, and observers.

Government bodies released comprehensive statistics only for the first eight months of the conflict. Throughout these months, reported numbers indicate an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to a single fatality once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Analysts documented another 35 casualties in detention subsequent to these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of deaths documented being significantly higher than earlier projections, it likely does not reflect the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, according to the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a higher number of casualties than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are certain that there are still detainees who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, per a simultaneous examination.

During May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 named individuals, documented only 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of hostilities. Top government figures have publicly referenced inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Present and past prisoners and insiders from the Israeli military have all alleged routine infractions of global standards.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a disturbing rise in fatalities documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the war, there were on average two or three deaths a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident here and there. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative said, partially because there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of attacking prisoners has reached litigation, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to charge other suspects over a severe beating involving sexual violence caused political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now insisting that charges against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this mass number of fatalities, over two years no one has been arrested,” the official said. “There are no indictments over any killing.

“During the time these practices continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement is in danger, also the healthy ones, including the young ones who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in custody have been high profile, including a middle-aged hospital director who lost his life in detention after a third of a year in detention.

A prisoner detained alongside the deceased stated that he was brought to the courtyard by guards shortly before his passing, obviously hurt and naked from the hips downward. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel are unidentified. Detention administrators and defense forces provided analysts with the total of casualties in detention, and minimal other details including the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, researchers could not to connect the minimal data provided by government bodies to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, via statements from released detainees or coverage in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the outset of the war, the Israeli military declined to give fundamental details about the status of numerous of people detained in Gaza, practically carrying out a approach of forced disappearance, per the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an electronic contact for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on