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Based on data from Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives during detention since October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the true number is likely substantially greater, because of numerous of unaccounted for people from Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report documented casualties resulting from physical violence, medical neglect, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used official data requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with attorneys, advocates, next of kin, and witnesses.

Official sources released complete statistics solely covering the opening period of the war. Over this period, government statistics indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, equating to a life lost every four days.

Recent Figures

Israeli defense forces finalized records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service by September 2024. Researchers documented an additional 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these timeframes and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the total number of fatalities recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely omits the full scale of losses among Palestinians, according to the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he explained. “We are confident that there are yet individuals who died in detention that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified official information shows that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in jail were ordinary citizens, per a related investigation.

By May of this year, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a list of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 casualties in custody. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in jail.

Custodial Environment

Assault, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of war. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an underground jail detaining Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Current and former detainees and informants from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of global standards.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a disturbing rise in fatalities recorded across at least 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade before the conflict, there were usually several fatalities a year.

“This does not represent only a single occurrence sporadically. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, in part due to the fact there is a climate of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing Palestinian individuals.

Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has proceeded to court, with the soldier sentenced to half a year. An effort to charge other suspects over a brutal attack featuring sexual violence caused public rallies and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now insisting that indictments against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Despite this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the spokesperson noted. “There exist no charges over any killing.

“While these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in confinement is in danger, also the healthy ones, also the juveniles who have no health problems.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in custody have been widely reported, such as a middle-aged healthcare leader who perished in detention after 120 days in confinement.

An inmate held with the deceased stated that he was brought to the yard by prison staff immediately preceding his demise, clearly wounded and exposed from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave analysts with the figure of fatalities in detention, and limited additional information such as the site where they died, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly individuals from Gaza, investigators were unable to connect the limited information given by officials to a death recorded by human rights groups, by means of statements from former inmates or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinians it is confining. Over half a year at the start of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to give fundamental details about the whereabouts of numerous of individuals held in Gaza, in effect carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, per the rights monitoring body.

Limited Transparency

Starting in May 2024, officials have created an electronic contact for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on