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Per data provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have perished while in custody starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the actual toll is almost certainly considerably larger, because of hundreds of unaccounted for individuals originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation tracked deaths caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators used official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with lawyers, human rights defenders, family members, and observers.

Government bodies provided complete data solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, government statistics show an historically high death toll among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality every four days.

Updated Statistics

The military last updated data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Investigators documented another 35 casualties in custody after these periods and validated them with official sources.

Despite the aggregate figure of fatalities documented being substantially larger than previous assessments, it probably fails to capture the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, per the head of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a greater figure of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are certain that there are yet individuals who died in custody that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted official information indicates that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were civilians, based on a parallel investigation.

In May of this year, a military intelligence database following all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 listed people, listed merely 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Assault, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an underground jail detaining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Existing and previous detainees and insiders from the Israeli military have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a disturbing rise in deaths documented across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. Over ten years prior to the hostilities, there were usually a couple deaths a year.

“This is not merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” an official commented, partially because there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Merely one incident of attacking inmates has come to trial, with the service member sentenced to half a year. An effort to charge others over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this significant total of deaths, during 24 months no one has faced arrest,” the representative noted. “There have been no charges over any death.

“During the time these measures continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in detention faces risk, even the physically well individuals, including the youth who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in detention have been publicly known, such as a middle-aged healthcare leader who lost his life in prison after 120 days in confinement.

A detainee held with the individual stated that he was taken to the courtyard by prison staff immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and unclothed from the hips downward. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and armed services gave analysts with the total of casualties in confinement, and minimal further data including the facility where they perished, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, primarily people from Gaza, analysts were unable to connect the few details provided by officials to a casualty recorded by rights organisations, by means of accounts from released detainees or accounts in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their relatives’ casualties either, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor detainees it is holding. For seven months at the start of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to provide fundamental details about the whereabouts of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of forced disappearance, per the human rights group.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, officials have created an email address for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on