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Based on data from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has indicated that the real number is probably significantly larger, as a result of hundreds of unaccounted for people in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report documented deaths caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Analysts used transparency petitions, forensic reports, and interviews with attorneys, activists, next of kin, and witnesses.

Government bodies provided complete statistics solely covering the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, reported numbers indicate an unprecedented fatality rate among Palestinian detainees, equating to a single fatality once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

The military most recently revised data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Analysts identified a further 35 casualties in detention after these timeframes and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the overall count of casualties documented being significantly higher than earlier projections, it probably does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian casualties, according to the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a larger total of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are sure that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential Israeli data indicates that the largest portion of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in prison were ordinary citizens, per a simultaneous inquiry.

By May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 listed people, documented just 21 casualties in custody. At that time, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, abuse, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s prison network over the duration of war. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Current and former prisoners and insiders from the Israeli military have collectively claimed systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade before the war, there were usually a couple deaths a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” a representative stated, partially due to the fact there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of attacking prisoners has proceeded to court, with the service member handed a punishment to 210 days. An effort to try other suspects over a vicious assault including abuse caused right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now requesting that indictments against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“Regardless of this significant total of casualties, throughout the conflict no one has been detained,” the official noted. “There exist no indictments over any death.

“As long as these practices continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, including the healthy ones, including the youth who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, including a senior medical chief who perished in prison after 120 days in confinement.

A prisoner incarcerated with the victim reported that he was taken to the exercise area by correctional officers shortly before his passing, visibly injured and unclothed from the waist down. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Correctional authorities and military gave analysts with the number of fatalities in custody, and minimal additional information including the facility where they lost their lives, but not the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly detainees from Gaza, analysts were unable to connect the few details given by officials to a casualty recorded by human rights groups, either through statements from freed prisoners or accounts in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has created obstacles to monitor Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the Israeli military would not provide to provide fundamental details about the condition of many of individuals detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of forced disappearance, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, authorities have created an email address for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on