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Per data provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have died during detention since October 2023. An advocacy organization based in Israel has stated that the real figure is likely considerably greater, because of many of unaccounted for individuals originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study documented fatalities attributed to assault, medical neglect, and starvation. Investigators utilized transparency petitions, autopsy findings, and discussions with lawyers, human rights defenders, relatives, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies released detailed statistics limited to the first eight months of the hostilities. Over this period, government statistics reveal an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, averaging a life lost once every four-day period.

Latest Data

The military finalized records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Investigators identified a further 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these dates and verified them with official sources.

Although the overall count of casualties documented being much greater than previous assessments, it likely fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian casualties, per the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are providing evidence for a higher number of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are certain that there are yet individuals who perished in custody that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Casualties

Restricted government records shows that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in prison were non-combatants, per a parallel investigation.

In May of 2024, a armed services record following all fighters in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 fatalities in detention. By that point, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in prison.

Prison Situation

Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system over two years of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted starvation rations and an below-ground detention center detaining detainees who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous detainees and insiders from the armed services have collectively claimed routine infractions of human rights protocols.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a alarming increase in fatalities registered across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade before the hostilities, there were on average two or three deaths a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is widespread and it is likely to persist,” an official stated, partly because there is a environment of near total impunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Merely one incident of beating detainees has proceeded to court, with the soldier handed a punishment to half a year. An effort to charge other suspects over a vicious assault including assault led to political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this large quantity of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has faced arrest,” the spokesperson said. “There exist no charges over any fatality.

“During the time these policies remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in detention faces risk, also the those in good health, also the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

Prominent Examples

Certain fatalities in custody have been widely reported, for instance a senior healthcare leader who lost his life in detention after four months in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the individual reported that he was taken to the exercise area by guards immediately preceding his demise, clearly wounded and naked from the hips downward. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Additional detainees who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military gave investigators with the total of casualties in confinement, and minimal further data for example the site where they perished, but excluding the prisoners’ names.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mainly individuals from Gaza, analysts could not to connect the limited information supplied by officials to a fatality registered by advocacy bodies, by means of testimony from released detainees or coverage in the media.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor Palestinians it is detaining. For seven months at the beginning of the conflict, the armed services would not provide to give basic information about the status of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, in effect carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, authorities have created an digital correspondence for enquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on