No Fewer Than 98 Palestinian Individuals Have Died in Israeli Custody Starting From October 2023, Israeli Data Shows
Per data provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have perished while detained since October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has stated that the true toll is almost certainly significantly higher, as a result of many of disappeared detainees in Gaza.
Report Findings
A recent report tracked casualties caused by assault, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Investigators utilized freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with legal representatives, activists, family members, and witnesses.
Israeli authorities disclosed complete data only for the opening period of the war. Over this period, reported numbers reveal an record fatality rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to one death every four days.
Recent Figures
Israeli defense forces most recently revised data on detention fatalities for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Analysts identified an additional 35 deaths in custody after these periods and verified them with government bodies.
Despite the overall count of deaths recorded being significantly higher than previous assessments, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of losses among Palestinians, per the head of the detainee affairs unit.
“While we are providing evidence for a larger total of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still individuals who perished in custody that we don’t know about.”
Non-Combatant Fatalities
Classified official information indicates that the largest portion of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who perished in detention were civilians, based on a parallel investigation.
By May of this year, a defense forces registry tracking all militants in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 identified persons, listed merely 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had perished in prison.
Prison Situation
Physical violence, torture, and other abuse of Palestinians is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities during the duration of conflict. Senior officials have openly admitted minimal sustenance and an subterranean prison detaining detainees who never see daylight.
Current and former inmates and insiders from the Israeli military have collectively claimed routine infractions of human rights protocols.
Systemic Abuse
The systematic abuse was accompanied by a disturbing rise in fatalities documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were on average several fatalities a year.
“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson commented, partly due to the fact there is a culture of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.
Merely one incident of assaulting prisoners has come to trial, with the military personnel given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to prosecute additional individuals over a severe beating featuring sexual violence led to political demonstrations and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now insisting that charges against them are dropped.
Absence of Consequences
“Despite this mass number of fatalities, over two years not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no charges over any death.
“During the time these practices continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in detention faces risk, including the healthy ones, also the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”
High-Profile Cases
Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, for instance a middle-aged medical chief who lost his life in confinement after four months in detention.
A prisoner detained alongside the individual testified that he was taken to the courtyard by correctional officers immediately preceding his demise, visibly injured and unclothed from the waist down. His body has not been repatriated to Gaza.
Additional detainees who died in detention in Israel stay unnamed. The prison service and military provided researchers with the number of deaths in confinement, and limited additional information for example the site where they died, but excluding the detainees’ identities.
Recognition Difficulties
Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly individuals from Gaza, investigators were not able to match the limited information provided by officials to a casualty documented by rights organisations, either through statements from released detainees or reporting in the news outlets.
The prisoners’ relatives may not know about their relatives’ casualties also, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinian individuals it is detaining. Over half a year at the outset of the war, the armed services declined to give fundamental details about the status of many of persons detained in Gaza, practically enacting a approach of involuntary missing persons, according to the advocacy organization.
Limited Transparency
Beginning last May, government bodies have created an email address for enquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited improvement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on