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Based on information provided by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has reported that the actual figure is almost certainly significantly larger, because of many of missing detainees from Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report documented fatalities attributed to brutality, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts employed transparency petitions, forensic reports, and interviews with attorneys, activists, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities released complete data only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures reveal an historically high fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a life lost each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Official armed forces most recently revised data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Analysts identified a further 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these dates and verified them with Israeli authorities.

Although the overall count of deaths recorded being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a higher number of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are confident that there are yet people who lost their lives in detention that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records suggests that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, according to a related examination.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all militants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 listed people, documented merely 21 casualties in detention. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in jail.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, mistreatment, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities over the duration of conflict. Top government figures have publicly referenced inadequate food and an underground jail detaining detainees who never see daylight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a troubling surge in deaths registered across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the hostilities, there were usually two or three casualties a year.

“This does not represent merely an isolated incident sporadically. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” an official said, in part because there is a environment of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Only a single instance of assaulting inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to 210 days. An effort to charge others over a brutal attack including sexual violence resulted in right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this mass number of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson stated. “There are no indictments over any killing.

“During the time these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in confinement faces risk, including the healthy ones, also the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in confinement have been widely reported, such as a middle-aged hospital director who died in prison after 120 days in confinement.

A detainee held with the individual reported that he was taken to the exercise area by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, clearly wounded and exposed from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided investigators with the total of casualties in detention, and basic additional information such as the location where they lost their lives, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly individuals from Gaza, analysts were unable to connect the minimal data supplied by officials to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, either through accounts from released detainees or coverage in the press.

The detainees’ families may not know about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the beginning of the war, the armed services refused to provide fundamental details about the status of many of persons detained in Gaza, effectively enacting a practice of forced disappearance, according to the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, government bodies have provided an email address for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on