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Based on information from Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have lost their lives while detained starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization operating from Israel has indicated that the true figure is probably significantly greater, due to hundreds of missing detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report tracked fatalities resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Researchers utilized official data requests, autopsy findings, and testimonies with attorneys, activists, next of kin, and witnesses.

Government bodies provided detailed statistics only for the first eight months of the hostilities. During this time, official figures indicate an historically high casualty rate among Palestinian prisoners, averaging one death once every four-day period.

Updated Statistics

Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on custodial deaths for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Researchers identified another 35 fatalities in confinement after these dates and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being significantly higher than earlier projections, it almost certainly does not reflect the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, per the leader of the detainee affairs unit.

“While we are providing evidence for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are certain that there are still people who lost their lives in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Restricted government records indicates that the majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died in detention were non-combatants, per a related investigation.

During May of the current year, a military intelligence database tracking all combatants in Gaza, a registry of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded just 21 deaths in confinement. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, abuse, and further cruelty of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s prison network over 24 months of war. High-ranking authorities have openly admitted inadequate food and an subterranean prison holding Palestinian individuals who are denied sunlight.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have all alleged systemic violations of human rights protocols.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty occurred alongside a troubling surge in deaths documented across no fewer than 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were usually several deaths a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence here and there. It is institutional and it will continue,” an official stated, in part since there is a culture of almost complete immunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Only a single instance of assaulting detainees has reached litigation, with the soldier handed a punishment to 210 days. An attempt to prosecute others over a severe beating including sexual violence led to right-wing protests and the apprehension of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now demanding that indictments against them are dropped.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this significant total of fatalities, during 24 months not one individual has been detained,” the representative stated. “There exist no indictments over any fatality.

“During the time these practices are being applied, all Palestinian detainees in detention is at peril, also the those in good health, including the youth who have no medical issues.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in custody have been high profile, such as a middle-aged hospital director who perished in confinement after a third of a year in detention.

An inmate held with the victim reported that he was led to the courtyard by guards shortly before his passing, obviously hurt and unclothed from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who died in Israeli custody are unidentified. The prison service and armed services provided analysts with the total of casualties in custody, and basic additional information including the facility where they lost their lives, but excluding the detainees’ identities.

Identification Challenges

For 21 instances, mostly people from Gaza, analysts were not able to correlate the minimal data given by government bodies to a casualty documented by rights organisations, by means of accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the media.

The prisoners’ relatives might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths either, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate detainees it is detaining. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the defense forces would not provide to provide fundamental details about the condition of numerous of persons held in Gaza, effectively carrying out a practice of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, officials have created an electronic contact for inquiries about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted betterment. Analysts noted|observed|commented on