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Based on data provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention starting from October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has indicated that the actual toll is probably significantly greater, because of many of disappeared individuals from Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study documented fatalities caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with lawyers, advocates, family members, and observers.

Official sources released comprehensive information solely covering the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, official figures indicate an unprecedented fatality rate among detained Palestinians, equating to a single fatality every four days.

Latest Data

Official armed forces finalized information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Investigators documented another 35 casualties in detention following these periods and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are even now detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified Israeli data suggests that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were civilians, according to a related investigation.

By May of this year, a military intelligence database tracking all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, recorded just 21 deaths in confinement. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in jail.

Prison Situation

Assault, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of conflict. Top government figures have publicly referenced inadequate food and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who are denied sunlight.

Present and past inmates and whistleblowers from the armed services have collectively claimed widespread breaches of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a alarming increase in casualties registered across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade before the hostilities, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident here and there. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a representative said, partially since there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating detainees has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to seven months. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack involving sexual violence resulted in right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict not a single person has faced arrest,” the representative stated. “There exist no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these policies continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in confinement faces risk, also the those in good health, also the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in detention have been publicly known, including a senior medical chief who lost his life in prison after four months in custody.

A detainee incarcerated with the individual reported that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers shortly before his passing, visibly injured and exposed from the lower body. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in detention in Israel stay unnamed. The prison service and armed services gave investigators with the total of fatalities in confinement, and minimal further data including the site where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mainly detainees from Gaza, researchers were unable to match the limited information provided by authorities to a death registered by advocacy bodies, via testimony from freed prisoners or reporting in the press.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinian individuals it is confining. For seven months at the outset of the conflict, the armed services refused to give basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of individuals held in Gaza, practically implementing a policy of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a modest and inadequate betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on