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Per data from Israel, at least 98 Palestinians have died during detention starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has stated that the actual number is likely significantly higher, because of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees in Gaza.

Report Findings

A recent report documented casualties caused by physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Researchers used freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with attorneys, human rights defenders, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies provided detailed statistics only for the first eight months of the war. Throughout these months, reported numbers indicate an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to a single fatality each 96 hours.

Updated Statistics

The military finalized information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Investigators documented a further 35 fatalities in detention subsequent to these dates and validated them with Israeli authorities.

Despite the aggregate figure of deaths recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it probably does not reflect the complete extent of Palestinian loss, as stated by the director of the prisoners and detainees department.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a greater figure of casualties than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he explained. “We are confident that there are still detainees who lost their lives in confinement that we don’t know about.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Classified government records indicates that the vast majority of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were non-combatants, based on a simultaneous examination.

In May of 2024, a defense forces registry following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had lost their lives in prison.

Detention Conditions

Assault, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine is now standard practice across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of conflict. Top government figures have openly admitted starvation rations and an subterranean prison confining Palestinians who are denied sunlight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the defense forces have uniformly asserted systemic violations of global standards.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The institutionalised cruelty came with a disturbing rise in fatalities documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. Over ten years preceding the war, there were usually a couple deaths a year.

“This is not only a single occurrence occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson stated, partly due to the fact there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating detainees.

Only a single instance of beating inmates has come to trial, with the military personnel sentenced to half a year. An effort to charge other suspects over a severe beating involving sexual violence led to political demonstrations and the detention of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that indictments against them be withdrawn.

Lack of Accountability

“Regardless of this significant total of fatalities, throughout the conflict not one individual has faced arrest,” the official said. “There exist no prosecutions over any killing.

“During the time these measures continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in confinement faces risk, including the physically well individuals, including the juveniles who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in confinement have been high profile, such as a 50-year-old hospital director who perished in detention after four months in detention.

A prisoner detained alongside the individual stated that he was led to the courtyard by guards just prior to his demise, obviously hurt and exposed from the waist down. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in confinement by Israeli authorities are unidentified. Detention administrators and defense forces provided investigators with the number of deaths in detention, and minimal other details including the facility where they lost their lives, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

Regarding 21 occurrences, mostly detainees from Gaza, researchers could not to match the limited information provided by officials to a fatality documented by advocacy bodies, via testimony from released detainees or reporting in the press.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has made it difficult to monitor detainees it is holding. During 210 days at the start of the conflict, the armed services refused to provide basic information about the status of many of people confined in Gaza, effectively enacting a approach of involuntary missing persons, according to the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have established an email address for requests about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on