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Based on data provided by Israel, no fewer than 98 Palestinian individuals have died while in custody starting from October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has indicated that the real figure is likely considerably larger, because of numerous of unaccounted for detainees originating in Gaza.

Study Results

A new investigation recorded fatalities attributed to assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts utilized official data requests, medical examiner documents, and interviews with lawyers, advocates, next of kin, and observers.

Official sources provided complete data limited to the initial 240 days of the hostilities. During this time, reported numbers reveal an historically high casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging a single fatality each 96 hours.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces last updated data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and detention administration during September 2024. Investigators discovered another 35 fatalities in confinement subsequent to these periods and verified them with official sources.

Despite the aggregate figure of casualties recorded being substantially larger than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, per the director of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a larger total of deaths than earlier indicated, this is not the entire story,” he said. “We are confident that there are still detainees who died in custody that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Deaths

Restricted Israeli data suggests that the vast majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who lost their lives in prison were civilians, per a related inquiry.

By May of the current year, a military intelligence database monitoring all militants in Gaza, a list of more than 47,000 named individuals, recorded only 21 deaths in detention. By that point, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Physical violence, torture, and additional maltreatment of detainees from Palestine has been normalised across Israel’s prison network throughout the duration of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an below-ground detention center confining Palestinian individuals who never see daylight.

Present and past detainees and whistleblowers from the armed services have uniformly asserted systemic violations of international law.

Institutionalized Cruelty

The organized mistreatment came with a troubling surge in deaths documented across no fewer than 12 detention centers in Israel. Over ten years preceding the hostilities, there were on average two or three fatalities a year.

“This is not just an individual case occasionally. It is systemic and it is likely to persist,” a spokesperson commented, in part because there is a environment of almost complete immunity for fatalities and maltreatment of detainees.

Just one case of beating detainees has come to trial, with the service member given a penalty to seven months. An attempt to try additional individuals over a severe beating involving sexual violence caused political demonstrations and the arrest of Israel’s chief legal officer, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be dismissed.

Lack of Accountability

“In spite of this mass number of fatalities, over two years no one has faced arrest,” the official stated. “There have been no prosecutions over any death.

“During the time these practices continue to be enforced, all Palestinian detainees in confinement is in danger, even the those in good health, including the youth who have no health problems.”

High-Profile Cases

Some deaths in confinement have been publicly known, for instance a senior healthcare leader who died in confinement after 120 days in detention.

A detainee incarcerated with the individual reported that he was taken to the yard by guards shortly before his demise, obviously hurt and unclothed from the lower body. His corpse remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who perished in Israeli custody are unidentified. The prison service and defense forces provided researchers with the number of deaths in detention, and basic other details including the facility where they perished, but not the inmates’ personal details.

Identification Challenges

In 21 cases, primarily detainees from Gaza, analysts were not able to connect the minimal data supplied by officials to a fatality documented by human rights groups, by means of accounts from freed prisoners or coverage in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin may not know about their family members’ fatalities as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is detaining. Over half a year at the start of the hostilities, the defense forces refused to provide basic information about the condition of thousands of persons detained in Gaza, effectively carrying out a policy of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the human rights group.

Restricted Access

From May 2024, authorities have created an email address for requests about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has provided only a incomplete and restricted enhancement. Analysts noted|observed|commented on