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Based on information from Israel, no fewer than 98 detainees from Palestine have died while detained beginning in October 2023. A rights monitoring body based in Israel has indicated that the true number is almost certainly substantially higher, as a result of numerous of disappeared individuals originating in Gaza.

Study Results

An updated study documented fatalities resulting from assault, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts employed official data requests, autopsy findings, and interviews with legal representatives, activists, next of kin, and witnesses.

Government bodies released detailed data solely covering the opening period of the hostilities. During this time, official figures indicate an record casualty rate among detained Palestinians, averaging one death every four days.

Updated Statistics

Official armed forces most recently revised data on deaths in detention for May 2024, and the prison service by September 2024. Researchers documented an additional 35 deaths in detention after these periods and validated them with official sources.

Despite the total number of deaths charted being much greater than earlier projections, it likely does not reflect the full scale of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the head of the prisoners and detainees department.

“While we are presenting proof for a higher number of deaths than previously reported, this is not a full picture,” he stated. “We are confident that there are yet individuals who died in custody that we are unaware of.”

Civilian Deaths

Classified Israeli data suggests that the majority of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in detention were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel investigation.

During May of 2024, a defense forces registry monitoring all militants in Gaza, a list of over 47,000 named individuals, listed only 21 fatalities in custody. By that date, 65 Palestinians from Gaza had died in jail.

Prison Situation

Assault, torture, and further cruelty of Palestinians has been normalised across Israel’s prison network during 24 months of hostilities. High-ranking authorities have publicly referenced inadequate food and an subterranean prison confining Palestinians who are kept in darkness.

Current and former inmates and whistleblowers from the Israeli military have uniformly asserted widespread breaches of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The institutionalised cruelty was accompanied by a troubling surge in casualties documented across a minimum of 12 civilian and military facilities in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the hostilities, there were usually several casualties a year.

“This isn’t merely an isolated incident occasionally. It is systemic and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson said, partly due to the fact there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for harming and abusing detainees.

Just one case of assaulting prisoners has reached litigation, with the soldier given a penalty to half a year. An attempt to charge others over a vicious assault featuring abuse resulted in public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the suspects now demanding that indictments against them are dropped.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this large quantity of casualties, throughout the conflict not one individual has been arrested,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no indictments over any death.

“While these measures remain in effect, every Palestinian in custody is at peril, also the those in good health, including the juveniles who have no medical issues.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in custody have been high profile, including a senior medical chief who died in detention after four months in custody.

A prisoner detained alongside the victim reported that he was taken to the courtyard by guards just prior to his death, clearly wounded and exposed from the lower body. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Further inmates who lost their lives in Israeli custody remain anonymous. Detention administrators and military supplied investigators with the total of deaths in confinement, and basic further data for example the location where they perished, but without the prisoners’ names.

Recognition Difficulties

In 21 cases, mainly people from Gaza, investigators were not able to correlate the few details provided by authorities to a death documented by advocacy bodies, via accounts from released detainees or coverage in the press.

The inmates’ next of kin could be unaware about their family members’ fatalities also, as Israel has impeded efforts to locate Palestinian individuals it is holding. During 210 days at the beginning of the hostilities, the armed services refused to supply basic information about the status of numerous of persons held in Gaza, practically enacting a approach of unacknowledged detention, according to the advocacy organization.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, officials have established an email address for requests about detainees from Gaza, but this has provided only a modest and inadequate improvement. Investigators noted|observed|commented on