No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Individuals Have Perished in Detention Since October 2023, Israeli Data Shows
According to figures provided by Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have died during detention since October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has stated that the real figure is almost certainly substantially larger, as a result of hundreds of unaccounted for people from Gaza.
Investigation Outcomes
An updated study recorded casualties caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators employed freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.
Israeli authorities provided comprehensive statistics solely covering the initial 240 days of the conflict. During this time, official figures indicate an historically high death toll among Palestinian prisoners, amounting to one death each 96 hours.
Latest Data
Israeli defense forces last updated data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 casualties in confinement after these dates and validated them with government bodies.
Despite the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being much greater than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the full scale of losses among Palestinians, as stated by the head of the prisoner monitoring division.
“Although we are offering documentation for a greater figure of fatalities than once estimated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still people who died in confinement that we don’t know about.”
Civilian Deaths
Classified Israeli data shows that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in detention were ordinary citizens, per a related inquiry.
By May of this year, a armed services record following all combatants in Gaza, a registry of over 47,000 listed people, listed merely 21 fatalities in confinement. At that time, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in detention.
Custodial Environment
Brutality, torture, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals has been normalised across Israel’s prison network throughout the duration of war. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an underground jail confining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.
Present and past prisoners and informants from the armed services have collectively claimed routine infractions of international law.
Organized Maltreatment
The systematic abuse was accompanied by a troubling surge in fatalities documented across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years preceding the hostilities, there were on average two or three casualties a year.
“This does not represent only a single occurrence here and there. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official stated, partly due to the fact there is a climate of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.
Just one case of beating inmates has come to trial, with the soldier given a penalty to 210 days. A endeavor to prosecute others over a brutal attack including sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the accused individuals now demanding that indictments against them are dropped.
No Legal Action
“In spite of this significant total of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative said. “There have been no charges over any death.
“As long as these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is in danger, also the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no medical issues.”
High-Profile Cases
Some deaths in confinement have been publicly known, such as a 50-year-old medical chief who perished in prison after a third of a year in detention.
An inmate detained alongside the deceased stated that he was brought to the courtyard by guards just prior to his death, clearly wounded and exposed from the waist down. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.
Additional detainees who died in detention in Israel remain anonymous. Detention administrators and defense forces supplied researchers with the number of casualties in detention, and basic further data such as the site where they lost their lives, but without the prisoners’ names.
Documentation Problems
In 21 cases, mostly individuals from Gaza, investigators were unable to correlate the few details given by government bodies to a death documented by advocacy bodies, via accounts from former inmates or coverage in the press.
The detainees’ families might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has made it difficult to track detainees it is holding. Over half a year at the start of the hostilities, the defense forces refused to provide fundamental details about the status of numerous of people held in Gaza, in effect enacting a approach of forced disappearance, per the advocacy organization.
Limited Transparency
From May 2024, officials have established an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on
