At Least 98 Palestinians Have Died in Custody Beginning in October 2023, Israeli Data Indicates
Based on information from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have lost their lives during detention starting from October 2023. A rights monitoring body located in Israel has indicated that the true figure is likely considerably higher, as a result of hundreds of disappeared people from Gaza.
Investigation Outcomes
An updated study tracked deaths resulting from assault, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Analysts utilized freedom of information requests, medical examiner documents, and discussions with legal representatives, advocates, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.
Israeli authorities provided comprehensive statistics only for the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, official figures reveal an record casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging a single fatality each 96 hours.
Recent Figures
Israeli defense forces most recently revised information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration in September 2024. Investigators identified a further 35 deaths in confinement after these timeframes and confirmed them with government bodies.
Although the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being substantially larger than previous assessments, it almost certainly fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the head of the prisoner monitoring division.
“While we are providing evidence for a greater figure of casualties than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are sure that there are yet people who perished in custody that we don’t know about.”
Civilian Deaths
Classified official information shows that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, based on a simultaneous inquiry.
In May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all fighters in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 deaths in custody. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in jail.
Custodial Environment
Physical violence, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities throughout two years of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced starvation rations and an underground jail confining detainees who never see daylight.
Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the defense forces have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of global standards.
Organized Maltreatment
The systematic abuse came with a alarming increase in deaths documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years before the war, there were typically several casualties a year.
“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” an official stated, partially since there is a environment of near total impunity for fatalities and maltreatment of Palestinian individuals.
Just one case of assaulting inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel handed a punishment to 210 days. An effort to charge other suspects over a brutal attack including abuse caused public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the accused individuals now requesting that allegations against them be dismissed.
Absence of Consequences
“In spite of this mass number of casualties, during 24 months not a single person has been arrested,” the official noted. “There have been no charges over any fatality.
“During the time these practices remain in effect, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is at peril, even the physically well individuals, also the youth who have no medical issues.”
Prominent Examples
Certain fatalities in confinement have been publicly known, for instance a middle-aged healthcare leader who died in confinement after a third of a year in custody.
A detainee incarcerated with the deceased reported that he was led to the yard by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and naked from the lower body. His body has not been returned to Gaza.
Further inmates who died in detention in Israel are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces supplied researchers with the number of casualties in confinement, and minimal additional information such as the facility where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.
Identification Challenges
For 21 instances, mainly people from Gaza, investigators were unable to correlate the minimal data given by authorities to a death recorded by advocacy bodies, by means of accounts from released detainees or accounts in the news outlets.
The detainees’ families could be unaware about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has created obstacles to locate Palestinians it is holding. Over half a year at the beginning of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to provide essential data about the status of thousands of people confined in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of forced disappearance, according to the rights monitoring body.
Restricted Access
Beginning last May, officials have created an electronic contact for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has led to just a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on
