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Based on information from Israel, at least 98 detainees from Palestine have lost their lives while detained beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body operating from Israel has indicated that the true number is likely significantly larger, due to hundreds of missing individuals in Gaza.

Study Results

A recent report documented casualties resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used official data requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies provided complete information solely covering the first eight months of the conflict. Throughout these months, reported numbers show an record casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging a single fatality each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

The military most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service in September 2024. Researchers discovered another 35 deaths in detention following these periods and confirmed them with government bodies.

Despite the aggregate figure of fatalities documented being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it almost certainly fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian loss, per the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are offering documentation for a higher number of fatalities than earlier indicated, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are yet individuals who perished in custody that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified Israeli data suggests that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were ordinary citizens, according to a simultaneous inquiry.

During May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all combatants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 deaths in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in jail.

Detention Conditions

Assault, mistreatment, and other abuse of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted starvation rations and an below-ground detention center holding detainees who are kept in darkness.

Current and former detainees and insiders from the defense forces have all alleged widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty came with a alarming increase in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. In the decade before the conflict, there were on average several deaths a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is widespread and it will continue,” an official stated, partially due to the fact there is a environment of almost complete immunity for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of attacking detainees has proceeded to court, with the military personnel sentenced to 210 days. A endeavor to charge additional individuals over a severe beating involving abuse resulted in political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the suspects now insisting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of deaths, during 24 months not a single person has been detained,” the representative said. “There have been no prosecutions over any killing.

“During the time these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in custody faces risk, even the healthy ones, even the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in detention have been widely reported, such as a senior medical chief who died in prison after four months in detention.

A detainee detained alongside the individual reported that he was led to the yard by correctional officers just prior to his passing, clearly wounded and naked from the waist down. His corpse has not been repatriated to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. The prison service and armed services supplied investigators with the number of deaths in detention, and minimal further data for example the site where they died, but without the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

For 21 instances, mostly detainees from Gaza, investigators could not to correlate the minimal data supplied by officials to a casualty registered by advocacy bodies, via accounts from freed prisoners or accounts in the news outlets.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their relatives’ casualties as well, as Israel has created obstacles to track Palestinian individuals it is detaining. During 210 days at the outset of the conflict, the defense forces declined to supply basic information about the status of thousands of people held in Gaza, practically carrying out a policy of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Limited Transparency

Beginning last May, officials have created an email address for enquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has led to just a partial and limited improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on