A Minimum of 98 Palestinian Individuals Lost Their Lives in Israeli Custody Since October 2023, Official Figures Shows

Based on information from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while in custody starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the actual number is probably substantially higher, because of many of missing detainees originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

An updated study tracked deaths attributed to assault, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with attorneys, activists, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies provided complete statistics only for the first eight months of the war. Over this period, government statistics show an record death toll among Palestinian detainees, averaging a life lost each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Investigators identified a further 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these periods and validated them with official sources.

Although the aggregate figure of deaths recorded being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly omits the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Although we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still individuals who perished in custody that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted Israeli data shows that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in prison were civilians, based on a parallel examination.

During May of this year, a armed services record monitoring all militants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 listed people, listed merely 21 casualties in detention. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in jail.

Prison Situation

Brutality, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s prison network over the duration of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Existing and previous detainees and insiders from the defense forces have all alleged systemic violations of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a troubling surge in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade preceding the conflict, there were on average a couple casualties a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it will continue,” a spokesperson commented, partly because there is a culture of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of attacking inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to charge other suspects over a vicious assault involving abuse led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, during 24 months no one has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There are no prosecutions over any killing.

“While these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement faces risk, including the those in good health, including the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in detention have been widely reported, such as a senior hospital director who died in prison after 120 days in custody.

A detainee held with the deceased testified that he was led to the yard by prison staff immediately preceding his death, clearly wounded and exposed from the lower body. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided researchers with the figure of casualties in detention, and basic further data for example the location where they died, but excluding the detainees’ identities.

Recognition Difficulties

For 21 instances, primarily detainees from Gaza, analysts could not to match the minimal data provided by officials to a death documented by human rights groups, by means of testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor detainees it is holding. For seven months at the start of the war, the defense forces declined to give essential data about the status of thousands of people held in Gaza, in effect enacting a policy of forced disappearance, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, officials have provided an digital correspondence for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on