No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Died in Israeli Custody Since October 2023, Official Figures Reveals
According to data from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while in custody since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has stated that the true number is probably substantially higher, due to hundreds of missing detainees in Gaza.
Report Findings
An updated study tracked deaths attributed to physical violence, medical neglect, and starvation. Investigators utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with legal representatives, advocates, family members, and observers.
Israeli authorities disclosed detailed information solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. Throughout these months, government statistics reveal an record death toll among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality each 96 hours.
Updated Statistics
Israeli defense forces last updated data on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Investigators discovered another 35 fatalities in custody following these dates and verified them with Israeli authorities.
Even with the overall count of fatalities charted being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian loss, per the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.
“Although we are providing evidence for a higher number of casualties than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet people who lost their lives in custody that we don’t know about.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were non-combatants, based on a parallel inquiry.
By May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 listed people, recorded just 21 fatalities in confinement. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in prison.
Prison Situation
Assault, abuse, and other abuse of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s jail system throughout two years of war. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.
Existing and previous inmates and informants from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of global standards.
Institutionalized Cruelty
The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths registered across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade before the war, there were usually several fatalities a year.
“This is not merely an isolated incident here and there. It is institutional and it is likely to persist,” an official said, partly because there is a culture of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.
Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has reached litigation, with the military personnel handed a punishment to seven months. An attempt to try other suspects over a severe beating featuring assault caused right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that charges against them be withdrawn.
No Legal Action
“Despite this significant total of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been detained,” the official stated. “There exist no indictments over any killing.
“While these practices continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in detention is at peril, also the physically well individuals, including the young ones who have no health problems.”
Notable Incidents
Some deaths in confinement have been high profile, such as a middle-aged healthcare leader who perished in confinement after 120 days in confinement.
An inmate held with the deceased testified that he was brought to the exercise area by prison staff shortly before his demise, clearly wounded and naked from the lower body. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.
Further inmates who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided analysts with the figure of deaths in detention, and limited other details such as the site where they lost their lives, but without the detainees’ identities.
Recognition Difficulties
For 21 instances, primarily people from Gaza, analysts were unable to match the limited information provided by officials to a casualty registered by human rights groups, either through testimony from former inmates or coverage in the media.
The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is holding. During 210 days at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services refused to provide basic information about the whereabouts of thousands of individuals held in Gaza, effectively implementing a practice of involuntary missing persons, per the human rights group.
Insufficient Disclosure
Beginning last May, officials have created an electronic contact for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on