At Least 98 Palestinians Have Died in Detention Beginning in October 2023, Statistics from Israel Shows
Based on information released by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have perished during detention beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has reported that the actual number is likely considerably larger, as a result of numerous of disappeared people originating in Gaza.
Report Findings
An updated study documented deaths resulting from physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators used transparency petitions, medical examiner documents, and interviews with legal representatives, human rights defenders, next of kin, and observers.
Official sources provided detailed statistics only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, official figures indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging a life lost once every four-day period.
Latest Data
The military finalized records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 casualties in confinement subsequent to these timeframes and validated them with Israeli authorities.
Although the aggregate figure of deaths documented being much greater than earlier projections, it almost certainly fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian loss, according to the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.
“Even though we are presenting proof for a larger total of fatalities than previously reported, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are sure that there are still people who lost their lives in detention that we don’t know about.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Restricted Israeli data indicates that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in detention were civilians, per a parallel examination.
During May of this year, a defense forces registry monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 deaths in custody. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in jail.
Prison Situation
Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s prison network throughout two years of conflict. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who never see daylight.
Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have all alleged systemic violations of international law.
Systemic Abuse
The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a disturbing rise in fatalities recorded across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade prior to the war, there were typically two or three deaths a year.
“This is not just an individual case here and there. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a representative commented, in part because there is a climate of near total impunity for harming and abusing Palestinians.
Just one case of beating prisoners has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to half a year. An effort to charge others over a brutal attack including sexual violence caused right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that charges against them be dismissed.
Lack of Accountability
“Despite this mass number of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has been arrested,” the representative noted. “There are no charges over any death.
“While these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in detention is at peril, even the healthy ones, even the juveniles who have no medical issues.”
High-Profile Cases
Several casualties in detention have been widely reported, including a 50-year-old hospital director who lost his life in confinement after a third of a year in confinement.
A detainee held with the individual reported that he was taken to the yard by guards just prior to his passing, visibly injured and exposed from the lower body. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.
Further inmates who perished in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and military provided investigators with the figure of casualties in detention, and basic other details for example the location where they died, but excluding the prisoners’ names.
Documentation Problems
For 21 instances, primarily people from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the minimal data given by government bodies to a casualty recorded by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from former inmates or reporting in the media.
The detainees’ families could be unaware about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor detainees it is confining. For seven months at the beginning of the war, the armed services refused to provide basic information about the whereabouts of many of people confined in Gaza, practically enacting a policy of forced disappearance, as stated by the rights monitoring body.
Insufficient Disclosure
Starting in May 2024, officials have provided an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on
