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According to figures provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while detained starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has reported that the actual number is likely significantly larger, as a result of numerous of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study tracked casualties attributed to brutality, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies released complete statistics limited to the first eight months of the war. Over this period, reported numbers show an record fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging a single fatality every four days.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces last updated data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Analysts documented an additional 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these dates and validated them with official sources.

Even with the overall count of casualties documented being significantly higher than previous assessments, it almost certainly fails to capture the full scale of losses among Palestinians, according to the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Although we are presenting proof for a larger total of deaths than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are sure that there are still detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information shows that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were non-combatants, based on a parallel inquiry.

By May of the current year, a armed services record following all militants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 listed people, documented only 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had perished in jail.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s jail system over 24 months of conflict. Top government figures have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who never see daylight.

Existing and previous detainees and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a alarming increase in deaths registered across no fewer than 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were usually two or three casualties a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it will continue,” a representative said, in part since there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.

Only a single instance of assaulting prisoners has reached litigation, with the military personnel sentenced to half a year. An attempt to prosecute additional individuals over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence resulted in right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Absence of Consequences

“Regardless of this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these measures continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in detention is at peril, including the those in good health, even the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who died in prison after 120 days in confinement.

A prisoner incarcerated with the victim stated that he was taken to the courtyard by correctional officers immediately preceding his death, visibly injured and exposed from the hips downward. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who perished in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and armed services gave analysts with the figure of fatalities in confinement, and basic other details including the location where they lost their lives, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mainly people from Gaza, investigators were unable to connect the few details supplied by officials to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, via accounts from former inmates or coverage in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has created obstacles to track detainees it is detaining. Over half a year at the beginning of the war, the Israeli military refused to supply fundamental details about the status of many of people confined in Gaza, in effect enacting a policy of unacknowledged detention, per the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an electronic contact for enquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on