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Based on information from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained since October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has reported that the true toll is probably considerably higher, due to many of unaccounted for people in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

An updated study tracked casualties attributed to brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators used official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with attorneys, activists, family members, and witnesses.

Israeli authorities disclosed detailed data only for the opening period of the conflict. During this time, official figures indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, equating to a life lost each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces last updated information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities by September 2024. Investigators identified an additional 35 casualties in confinement subsequent to these periods and confirmed them with official sources.

Despite the total number of fatalities documented being much greater than other recent estimates, it almost certainly omits the full scale of losses among Palestinians, according to the head of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are presenting proof for a higher number of deaths than earlier indicated, this is an incomplete account,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet detainees who lost their lives in custody that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Confidential government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who lost their lives in detention were civilians, per a parallel investigation.

By May of this year, a armed services record monitoring all combatants in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 listed people, recorded only 21 fatalities in custody. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Detention Conditions

Brutality, mistreatment, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine has become routine across Israel’s jail system during 24 months of hostilities. Senior officials have publicly referenced starvation rations and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have uniformly asserted routine infractions of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties recorded across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. During the previous decade prior to the hostilities, there were on average a couple deaths a year.

“This does not represent just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it will continue,” a spokesperson commented, partly due to the fact there is a environment of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Only a single instance of attacking inmates has reached litigation, with the service member given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to try additional individuals over a brutal attack including abuse resulted in right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now requesting that charges against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this mass number of casualties, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative stated. “There have been no prosecutions over any fatality.

“While these measures are being applied, each Palestinian individual in custody is in danger, including the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Several casualties in detention have been widely reported, including a 50-year-old medical chief who died in detention after a third of a year in custody.

A prisoner detained alongside the individual stated that he was taken to the yard by correctional officers shortly before his demise, clearly wounded and naked from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who died in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Correctional authorities and defense forces provided researchers with the number of fatalities in confinement, and minimal additional information including the location where they lost their lives, but not the prisoners’ names.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, primarily people from Gaza, investigators were not able to match the few details provided by officials to a casualty documented by human rights groups, via statements from released detainees or accounts in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services declined to provide fundamental details about the condition of many of persons confined in Gaza, practically enacting a policy of unacknowledged detention, according to the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have provided an digital correspondence for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on