A Minimum of 98 Palestinian Detainees Have Died in Custody Starting From October 2023, Statistics from Israel Indicates
According to information released by Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained since October 2023. A human rights group based in Israel has stated that the true figure is likely significantly larger, because of many of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.
Study Results
A new investigation tracked fatalities attributed to assault, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Analysts employed official data requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and observers.
Government bodies disclosed complete data solely covering the first eight months of the hostilities. Throughout these months, government statistics show an historically high death toll among detained Palestinians, averaging one death once every four-day period.
Latest Data
Official armed forces most recently revised data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Researchers discovered an additional 35 deaths in confinement subsequent to these timeframes and confirmed them with official sources.
Even with the overall count of deaths recorded being significantly higher than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the leader of the detainee affairs unit.
“Although we are providing evidence for a greater figure of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are certain that there are still individuals who lost their lives in custody that we have not identified.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified Israeli data shows that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, per a simultaneous examination.
By May of the current year, a military intelligence database tracking all militants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, recorded merely 21 fatalities in custody. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.
Custodial Environment
Physical violence, abuse, and other abuse of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s jail system over 24 months of conflict. Top government figures have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an underground jail detaining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.
Current and former inmates and insiders from the armed services have all alleged systemic violations of global standards.
Institutionalized Cruelty
The systematic abuse occurred alongside a alarming increase in deaths recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were usually a couple casualties a year.
“This does not represent just an individual case occasionally. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a representative said, partially because there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.
Just one case of assaulting inmates has reached litigation, with the soldier sentenced to seven months. An effort to prosecute additional individuals over a severe beating including assault led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now requesting that allegations against them are dropped.
No Legal Action
“Regardless of this large quantity of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.
“During the time these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, also the those in good health, also the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”
Notable Incidents
Some deaths in custody have been high profile, including a senior hospital director who lost his life in confinement after 120 days in detention.
A prisoner held with the deceased reported that he was taken to the yard by guards shortly before his passing, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.
Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided investigators with the number of casualties in custody, and minimal further data including the facility where they died, but without the detainees’ identities.
Documentation Problems
In 21 cases, mainly individuals from Gaza, researchers were unable to correlate the few details given by authorities to a fatality documented by advocacy bodies, either through statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the press.
The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has created obstacles to locate Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the beginning of the war, the armed services would not provide to provide basic information about the whereabouts of numerous of persons confined in Gaza, effectively implementing a practice of unacknowledged detention, per the advocacy organization.
Limited Transparency
From May 2024, government bodies have provided an email address for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on
