At Least 98 Palestinians Have Died in Custody Beginning in October 2023, Official Figures Shows

Based on data provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have perished while in custody beginning in October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the real figure is likely substantially larger, because of many of unaccounted for individuals originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report documented fatalities attributed to assault, lack of healthcare, and malnutrition. Researchers used official data requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with legal representatives, activists, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies released complete statistics only for the initial 240 days of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, equating to a single fatality every four days.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces finalized records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Investigators identified a further 35 fatalities in custody after these timeframes and validated them with official sources.

Even with the total number of fatalities recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it almost certainly omits the full scale of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of fatalities than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are sure that there are yet detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we are unaware of.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential official information indicates that the vast majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a parallel inquiry.

By May of this year, a armed services record tracking all militants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 listed people, documented just 21 fatalities in detention. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, abuse, and other abuse of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s prison network during the duration of hostilities. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an subterranean prison confining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Present and past inmates and whistleblowers from the armed services have collectively claimed widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The systematic abuse was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties registered across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade preceding the hostilities, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident here and there. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” an official commented, partly due to the fact there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.

Just one case of attacking detainees has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to 210 days. An attempt to try additional individuals over a brutal attack involving abuse led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that charges against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this significant total of fatalities, throughout the conflict not a single person has faced arrest,” the representative said. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.

“While these measures remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in detention faces risk, also the those in good health, also the youth who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been widely reported, for instance a middle-aged medical chief who lost his life in prison after 120 days in custody.

An inmate incarcerated with the victim stated that he was taken to the yard by guards just prior to his passing, clearly wounded and exposed from the waist down. His remains has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in detention in Israel stay unnamed. Correctional authorities and military provided researchers with the total of casualties in confinement, and limited other details such as the facility where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, primarily detainees from Gaza, researchers were not able to correlate the minimal data supplied by authorities to a fatality documented by advocacy bodies, via statements from freed prisoners or reporting in the news outlets.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinian individuals it is detaining. For seven months at the outset of the war, the defense forces declined to give essential data about the status of many of persons confined in Gaza, practically carrying out a approach of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, authorities have established an email address for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on