A Minimum of 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Died in Detention Since October 2023, Israeli Data Indicates
According to figures from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have lost their lives while in custody beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has stated that the true number is almost certainly substantially larger, as a result of numerous of unaccounted for people from Gaza.
Study Results
An updated study tracked fatalities attributed to brutality, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Researchers used official data requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, human rights defenders, family members, and eyewitnesses.
Official sources provided complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, government statistics reveal an historically high death toll among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to one death once every four-day period.
Latest Data
Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Analysts documented a further 35 casualties in confinement after these dates and verified them with official sources.
Despite the total number of deaths documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely omits the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the head of the prisoners and detainees department.
“Even though we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are sure that there are still detainees who died in confinement that we don’t know about.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Restricted Israeli data shows that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were civilians, based on a simultaneous examination.
During May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 casualties in confinement. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in prison.
Custodial Environment
Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who never see daylight.
Existing and previous inmates and informants from the Israeli military have collectively claimed systemic violations of international law.
Systemic Abuse
The organized mistreatment occurred alongside a alarming increase in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were on average several fatalities a year.
“This isn’t only a single occurrence here and there. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson said, partly since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing Palestinians.
Only a single instance of beating inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel sentenced to half a year. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault involving abuse caused right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them are dropped.
Lack of Accountability
“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has faced arrest,” the official stated. “There are no indictments over any death.
“As long as these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, even the those in good health, also the young ones who have no health problems.”
Prominent Examples
Certain fatalities in detention have been widely reported, including a 50-year-old medical chief who perished in detention after 120 days in detention.
A prisoner incarcerated with the individual testified that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff just prior to his passing, visibly injured and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.
Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Detention administrators and defense forces gave researchers with the total of deaths in confinement, and basic additional information such as the location where they died, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.
Identification Challenges
Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly people from Gaza, analysts were not able to match the few details given by authorities to a casualty registered by advocacy bodies, via statements from released detainees or accounts in the media.
The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinians it is confining. During 210 days at the start of the hostilities, the defense forces would not provide to provide basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of people confined in Gaza, in effect implementing a approach of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.
Restricted Access
Starting in May 2024, officials have created an email address for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on
