No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Died in Custody Starting From October 2023, Official Figures Shows
Per information released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have perished during detention since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has stated that the real number is likely considerably greater, due to hundreds of missing people in Gaza.
Report Findings
A new investigation tracked casualties resulting from assault, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.
Official sources released complete statistics solely covering the opening period of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures reveal an historically high fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging one death each 96 hours.
Updated Statistics
Official armed forces most recently revised information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these timeframes and validated them with official sources.
Despite the aggregate figure of deaths recorded being much greater than previous assessments, it probably fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the head of the prisoner monitoring division.
“Even though we are offering documentation for a larger total of casualties than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet people who perished in confinement that we have not identified.”
Civilian Deaths
Classified official information suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel inquiry.
During May of this year, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in jail.
Prison Situation
Brutality, mistreatment, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities over 24 months of war. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an subterranean prison confining detainees who never see daylight.
Existing and previous inmates and insiders from the defense forces have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of global standards.
Organized Maltreatment
The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a disturbing rise in casualties documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade before the hostilities, there were usually two or three deaths a year.
“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official said, partially due to the fact there is a climate of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.
Only a single instance of attacking detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel sentenced to 210 days. A endeavor to prosecute others over a severe beating including sexual violence led to political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now demanding that indictments against them be dismissed.
No Legal Action
“Regardless of this large quantity of fatalities, over two years not a single person has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no indictments over any killing.
“As long as these policies continue to be enforced, every Palestinian in detention is at peril, including the those in good health, also the juveniles who have no health problems.”
High-Profile Cases
Some deaths in confinement have been widely reported, including a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in detention.
An inmate incarcerated with the victim testified that he was taken to the exercise area by guards shortly before his demise, obviously hurt and unclothed from the waist down. His corpse remains unreleased to Gaza.
Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided investigators with the figure of casualties in confinement, and basic other details including the site where they perished, but without the prisoners’ names.
Identification Challenges
Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the minimal data provided by authorities to a casualty documented by rights organisations, either through statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.
The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has made it difficult to locate detainees it is holding. During 210 days at the start of the hostilities, the armed services would not provide to provide essential data about the whereabouts of many of persons held in Gaza, practically implementing a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the advocacy organization.
Restricted Access
Starting in May 2024, officials have created an electronic contact for enquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a modest and inadequate betterment. Investigators noted|observed|commented on