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Based on information provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinians have died during detention beginning in October 2023. A human rights group located in Israel has stated that the real number is almost certainly significantly greater, due to hundreds of missing detainees in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

An updated study tracked casualties attributed to brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts used official data requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with legal representatives, human rights defenders, family members, and observers.

Israeli authorities released detailed statistics only for the initial 240 days of the conflict. Over this period, official figures show an record fatality rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces finalized records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Investigators discovered an additional 35 casualties in custody after these dates and validated them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of deaths recorded being significantly higher than earlier projections, it likely does not reflect the complete extent of losses among Palestinians, per the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a higher number of fatalities than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are confident that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted government records indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in detention were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous inquiry.

During May of the current year, a defense forces registry following all militants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 named individuals, recorded only 21 fatalities in confinement. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in detention.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, mistreatment, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has become routine across Israel’s prison network during two years of war. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

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

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a alarming increase in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were on average a couple deaths a year.

“This is not just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative commented, partly due to the fact there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of assaulting detainees has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to 210 days. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence resulted in political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now insisting that charges against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of fatalities, over two years not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “There are no prosecutions over any death.

“As long as these measures are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in detention faces risk, including the healthy ones, also the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Several casualties in confinement have been widely reported, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who lost his life in confinement after a third of a year in detention.

An inmate incarcerated with the individual stated that he was brought to the yard by prison staff just prior to his demise, visibly injured and exposed from the waist down. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided analysts with the number of fatalities in custody, and minimal additional information including the location where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly individuals from Gaza, investigators could not to connect the few details provided by officials to a death registered by advocacy bodies, by means of statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has made it difficult to track Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the beginning of the war, the defense forces refused to give fundamental details about the condition of many of persons confined in Gaza, practically enacting a approach of unacknowledged detention, per the human rights group.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on