A Minimum of 98 Palestinians Have Died in Custody Starting From October 2023, Official Figures Reveals

Per figures released by Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have perished while detained starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has reported that the real number is likely significantly greater, due to many of unaccounted for detainees from Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study recorded casualties caused by physical violence, lack of healthcare, and starvation. Investigators utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and discussions with attorneys, activists, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Official sources disclosed complete statistics limited to the initial 240 days of the conflict. Over this period, official figures indicate an record fatality rate among detained Palestinians, averaging a life lost every four days.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and detention administration by September 2024. Analysts documented a further 35 deaths in custody subsequent to these timeframes and confirmed them with official sources.

Even with the aggregate figure of deaths charted being significantly higher than previous assessments, it almost certainly does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian loss, per the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Although we are presenting proof for a higher number of casualties than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still people who lost their lives in detention that we have not identified.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified Israeli data suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in jail were civilians, according to a parallel inquiry.

During May of the current year, a armed services record following all militants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 identified persons, documented just 21 deaths in confinement. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in jail.

Prison Situation

Physical violence, mistreatment, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s detention facilities throughout the duration of conflict. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced starvation rations and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who are kept in darkness.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have collectively claimed routine infractions of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment occurred alongside a disturbing rise in fatalities registered across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were usually a couple fatalities a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case occasionally. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” an official said, in part because there is a climate of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Just one case of assaulting prisoners has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to half a year. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a brutal attack involving sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now demanding that charges against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this significant total of deaths, over two years not a single person has faced arrest,” the official said. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.

“During the time these practices remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in confinement is at peril, even the those in good health, also the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Notable Incidents

Several casualties in confinement have been publicly known, for instance a 50-year-old healthcare leader who perished in prison after a third of a year in confinement.

A prisoner detained alongside the victim reported that he was led to the courtyard by prison staff shortly before his death, obviously hurt and naked from the hips downward. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Detention administrators and armed services provided analysts with the number of deaths in custody, and limited other details for example the facility where they died, but not the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, mostly people from Gaza, researchers were unable to connect the few details given by officials to a death recorded by rights organisations, either through accounts from former inmates or accounts 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 track Palestinians it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the conflict, the Israeli military refused to supply fundamental details about the condition of many of persons detained in Gaza, practically enacting a practice of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, officials have established an email address for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on