At Least 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Died in Israeli Custody Beginning in October 2023, Israeli Data Indicates
Per data from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have died while in custody starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the true number is probably substantially larger, due to hundreds of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.
Study Results
A new investigation recorded casualties resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators employed transparency petitions, forensic reports, and testimonies with lawyers, advocates, next of kin, and observers.
Government bodies disclosed comprehensive data only for the initial 240 days of the war. Throughout these months, reported numbers show an record fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to a life lost every four days.
Recent Figures
Official armed forces last updated data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 deaths in custody subsequent to these timeframes and verified them with Israeli authorities.
Although the overall count of deaths recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the detainee affairs unit.
“Although we are presenting proof for a greater figure of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are sure that there are yet people who perished in detention that we have not identified.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified Israeli data suggests that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were civilians, based on a parallel inquiry.
During May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 identified persons, recorded just 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in prison.
Detention Conditions
Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s jail system throughout the duration of war. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.
Current and former inmates and informants from the armed services have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.
Systemic Abuse
The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a troubling surge in fatalities documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the conflict, there were on average a couple deaths a year.
“This does not represent just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson stated, partially because there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.
Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has come to trial, with the soldier handed a punishment to half a year. A endeavor to try others over a vicious assault including abuse resulted in public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the accused individuals now requesting that allegations against them are dropped.
No Legal Action
“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “There exist no indictments over any death.
“While these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, also the physically well individuals, even the youth who have no medical issues.”
Prominent Examples
Several casualties in custody have been widely reported, for instance a senior medical chief who lost his life in prison after a third of a year in custody.
A prisoner held with the individual reported that he was led to the courtyard by correctional officers immediately preceding his death, visibly injured and exposed from the hips downward. His body has not been returned to Gaza.
Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. The prison service and military gave investigators with the total of deaths in confinement, and limited further data including the facility where they perished, but not the prisoners’ names.
Identification Challenges
In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, analysts could not to match the limited information supplied by officials to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, via accounts from former inmates or accounts in the press.
The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities also, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor detainees it is holding. For seven months at the beginning of the conflict, the defense forces refused to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of many of persons detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the rights monitoring body.
Restricted Access
From May 2024, authorities have established an email address for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on