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Based on data from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while detained starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has indicated that the actual figure is likely substantially higher, due to many of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented casualties resulting from physical violence, lack of healthcare, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators utilized official data requests, forensic reports, and discussions with lawyers, activists, family members, and observers.

Israeli authorities released complete data only for the first eight months of the conflict. Throughout these months, reported numbers reveal an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces last updated information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Analysts identified another 35 casualties in custody after these timeframes and validated them with government bodies.

Despite the aggregate figure of deaths recorded being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian loss, as stated by the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are providing evidence for a higher number of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he stated. “We are certain that there are still people who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Confidential official information shows that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were ordinary citizens, based on a related examination.

By May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all combatants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 deaths in confinement. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Prison Situation

Physical violence, abuse, and further cruelty of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s jail system over 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an underground jail holding Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Present and past inmates and informants from the armed services have all alleged widespread breaches of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment occurred alongside a disturbing rise in fatalities registered across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the conflict, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This isn’t only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson stated, partly due to the fact there is a environment of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack featuring abuse led to political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now requesting that allegations against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“Despite this mass number of casualties, over two years no one has been detained,” the representative said. “There have been no charges over any death.

“As long as these measures continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in confinement faces risk, including the those in good health, also the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in confinement have been widely reported, for instance a senior medical chief who died in prison after four months in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the victim testified that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. Detention administrators and military provided investigators with the total of fatalities in detention, and basic other details including the site where they lost their lives, but without the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers were unable to match the few details given by government bodies to a casualty registered by advocacy bodies, via accounts from freed prisoners or accounts in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families may not know about their family members’ fatalities also, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor detainees it is detaining. Over half a year at the outset of the war, the defense forces would not provide to provide basic information about the status of numerous of persons detained in Gaza, effectively implementing a policy of forced disappearance, according to the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

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