No Fewer Than 98 Palestinians Have Perished in Detention Since October 2023, Israeli Data Reveals
According to information provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have perished while in custody beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the real figure is likely significantly greater, due to numerous of disappeared detainees in Gaza.
Report Findings
A new investigation tracked casualties attributed to physical violence, medical neglect, and starvation. Investigators utilized transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and discussions with lawyers, advocates, relatives, and witnesses.
Israeli authorities released comprehensive information only for the initial 240 days of the war. Throughout these months, government statistics show an historically high fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality every four days.
Updated Statistics
Official armed forces most recently revised records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Investigators documented a further 35 casualties in custody after these dates and validated them with Israeli authorities.
Although the total number of casualties documented being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly omits the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the director of the prisoners and detainees department.
“While we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are sure that there are still individuals who lost their lives in custody that we are unaware of.”
Civilian Casualties
Confidential government records suggests that the vast majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who died in prison were ordinary citizens, according to a parallel inquiry.
In May of this year, a armed services record tracking all militants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 named individuals, documented only 21 casualties in confinement. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in detention.
Prison Situation
Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s jail system over 24 months of war. Top government figures have openly admitted starvation rations and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who are denied sunlight.
Existing and previous prisoners and informants from the armed services have uniformly asserted routine infractions of international law.
Organized Maltreatment
The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were usually several casualties a year.
“This is not only a single occurrence occasionally. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” an official said, in part because there is a climate of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.
Just one case of assaulting inmates has reached litigation, with the soldier handed a punishment to seven months. An effort to try others over a vicious assault involving abuse led to political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the accused individuals now demanding that allegations against them are dropped.
Lack of Accountability
“Despite this significant total of deaths, during 24 months not one individual has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no indictments over any death.
“As long as these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is at peril, including the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”
Prominent Examples
Several casualties in custody have been publicly known, such as a 50-year-old medical chief who died in detention after 120 days in detention.
A detainee held with the victim reported that he was led to the yard by guards just prior to his passing, clearly wounded and naked from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.
Additional detainees who died in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave researchers with the figure of deaths in confinement, and limited additional information such as the location where they died, but not the detainees’ identities.
Identification Challenges
In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, researchers were unable to correlate the limited information provided by officials to a casualty registered by rights organisations, either through statements from former inmates or reporting in the press.
The detainees’ families may not know about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is detaining. Over half a year at the start of the war, the Israeli military declined to provide essential data about the status of thousands of individuals confined in Gaza, effectively implementing a practice of forced disappearance, as stated by the advocacy organization.
Limited Transparency
Beginning last May, government bodies have established an electronic contact for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on
