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Per figures provided by Israel, at least 98 Palestinian individuals have died while detained since October 2023. A human rights group operating from Israel has indicated that the actual figure is almost certainly substantially greater, due to many of disappeared detainees originating in Gaza.

Investigation Outcomes

An updated study tracked deaths caused by assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Investigators used freedom of information requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with attorneys, human rights defenders, family members, and witnesses.

Government bodies disclosed comprehensive statistics solely covering the opening period of the conflict. During this time, government statistics show an unprecedented casualty rate among detained Palestinians, amounting to one death each 96 hours.

Recent Figures

Official armed forces most recently revised information on custodial deaths for May 2024, and the prison service during September 2024. Researchers identified a further 35 casualties in custody subsequent to these dates and verified them with official sources.

Although the overall count of fatalities charted being significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely does not reflect the complete extent of Palestinian casualties, according to the director of the detainee affairs unit.

“Even though we are presenting proof for a greater figure of casualties than once estimated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are confident that there are still individuals who died in custody that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Classified official information suggests that the vast majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who died in jail were ordinary citizens, according to a simultaneous inquiry.

By May of 2024, a military intelligence database following all combatants in Gaza, a roster of in excess of 47,000 named individuals, listed merely 21 deaths in custody. By that point, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had died in detention.

Prison Situation

Assault, abuse, and further cruelty of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s detention facilities during two years of conflict. Senior officials have publicly referenced minimal sustenance and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinian individuals who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous inmates and whistleblowers from the defense forces have uniformly asserted systemic violations of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The organized mistreatment was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties recorded across no fewer than 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the conflict, there were on average a couple fatalities a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case here and there. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” an official stated, partially due to the fact there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing Palestinians.

Only a single instance of beating inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member given a penalty to half a year. An effort to charge other suspects over a severe beating featuring abuse led to right-wing protests and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the suspects now requesting that charges against them be dismissed.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this significant total of deaths, throughout the conflict not one individual has been detained,” the representative said. “There have been no indictments over any fatality.

“During the time these practices remain in effect, each Palestinian individual in custody is in danger, even the those in good health, even the juveniles who have no underlying conditions.”

Notable Incidents

Certain fatalities in custody have been publicly known, including a middle-aged hospital director who perished in prison after four months in confinement.

A prisoner held with the deceased testified that he was brought to the exercise area by guards immediately preceding his passing, visibly injured and unclothed from the lower body. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

Other prisoners who lost their lives in Israeli custody stay unnamed. Detention administrators and defense forces gave researchers with the figure of casualties in custody, and minimal other details such as the site where they lost their lives, but without the inmates’ personal details.

Recognition Difficulties

Regarding 21 occurrences, mainly detainees from Gaza, investigators could not to correlate the few details provided by government bodies to a fatality documented by human rights groups, via accounts from former inmates or accounts in the press.

The prisoners’ relatives could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities either, as Israel has made it difficult to locate Palestinian individuals it is detaining. For seven months at the start of the conflict, the Israeli military declined to provide basic information about the whereabouts of thousands of people held in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of forced disappearance, per the human rights group.

Insufficient Disclosure

Starting in May 2024, government bodies have created an electronic contact for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a partial and limited betterment. Researchers noted|observed|commented on