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According to figures from Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have died during detention starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the actual figure is almost certainly significantly greater, due to many of missing people from Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study recorded casualties attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts used freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with legal representatives, advocates, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Israeli authorities released complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. During this time, official figures show an unprecedented casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Official armed forces finalized records on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Analysts documented a further 35 casualties in custody following these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Although the overall count of fatalities documented being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it almost certainly fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian loss, as stated by the leader of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Although we are providing evidence for a higher number of fatalities than once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are yet people who perished in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential government records suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in detention were non-combatants, based on a parallel inquiry.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded merely 21 casualties in detention. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had died in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, mistreatment, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network throughout the duration of war. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged minimal sustenance and an underground jail holding Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous inmates and insiders from the armed services have all alleged widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade preceding the war, there were on average two or three deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is institutional and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson said, partly due to the fact there is a environment of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating detainees has reached litigation, with the service member given a penalty to half a year. A endeavor to charge additional individuals over a brutal attack including assault resulted in public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now demanding that indictments against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this significant total of casualties, over two years not a single person has faced arrest,” the spokesperson stated. “There are no indictments over any killing.

“As long as these measures are being applied, every Palestinian in detention is at peril, even the those in good health, even the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, including a middle-aged medical chief who perished in detention after a third of a year in custody.

An inmate held with the individual reported that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers immediately preceding his death, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His remains has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. Detention administrators and military gave analysts with the number of deaths in custody, and basic additional information such as the facility where they lost their lives, but without the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mostly individuals from Gaza, analysts were not able to correlate the limited information given by government bodies to a casualty recorded by advocacy bodies, either through accounts from released detainees or coverage in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinians it is holding. During 210 days at the start of the conflict, the defense forces refused to provide basic information about the condition of thousands of individuals confined in Gaza, effectively implementing a policy of unacknowledged detention, per the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

From May 2024, government bodies have created an email address for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on