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Based on data provided by Israel, a minimum of 98 Palestinians have died while in custody beginning in October 2023. A human rights group located in Israel has indicated that the true figure is likely significantly greater, as a result of hundreds of unaccounted for detainees from Gaza.

Report Findings

A new investigation documented casualties attributed to physical violence, failure to provide medical care, and starvation. Analysts utilized freedom of information requests, forensic reports, and testimonies with lawyers, activists, relatives, and observers.

Israeli authorities disclosed complete information solely covering the initial 240 days of the war. Over this period, government statistics reveal an record death toll among Palestinian prisoners, averaging a life lost once every four-day period.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces last updated information on deaths in detention for May 2024, and correctional authorities in September 2024. Analysts identified an additional 35 deaths in detention subsequent to these periods and verified them with government bodies.

Despite the aggregate figure of fatalities charted being substantially larger than previous assessments, it probably fails to capture the full scale 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 once estimated, this is an incomplete account,” he explained. “We are certain that there are even now people who died in custody that we have not identified.”

Non-Combatant Fatalities

Confidential official information shows that the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who perished in jail were ordinary citizens, based on a parallel investigation.

In May of the current year, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a roster of more than 47,000 identified persons, recorded only 21 deaths in detention. At that time, 65 Gazans from Gaza had lost their lives in detention.

Custodial Environment

Brutality, abuse, and additional maltreatment of Palestinians has become routine across Israel’s jail system throughout two years of conflict. Senior officials have publicly acknowledged inadequate food and an underground jail confining detainees who are kept in darkness.

Existing and previous prisoners and whistleblowers from the defense forces have collectively claimed routine infractions of international law.

Systemic Abuse

The systematic abuse occurred alongside a alarming increase in casualties recorded across at least 12 prison sites in Israel. During the previous decade preceding the conflict, there were typically several casualties a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is systemic and it will continue,” a spokesperson stated, partly since there is a culture of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating Palestinians.

Merely one incident of attacking inmates has proceeded to court, with the service member sentenced to 210 days. An effort to try other suspects over a vicious assault featuring sexual violence led to public rallies and the apprehension of Israel’s senior defense attorney, with the alleged perpetrators now insisting that allegations against them be withdrawn.

No Legal Action

“In spite of this mass number of casualties, during 24 months no one has faced arrest,” the spokesperson noted. “There have been no charges over any fatality.

“As long as these practices are being applied, every Palestinian in confinement is at peril, even the healthy ones, also the young ones who have no underlying conditions.”

High-Profile Cases

Several casualties in confinement have been publicly known, for instance a senior medical chief who perished in confinement after four months in confinement.

An inmate incarcerated with the victim stated that he was taken to the exercise area by prison staff shortly before his death, visibly injured and naked from the waist down. His corpse has not been returned to Gaza.

Additional detainees who perished in Israeli custody are unidentified. Correctional authorities and defense forces gave researchers with the figure of casualties in detention, and limited other details including the facility where they died, but excluding the inmates’ personal details.

Documentation Problems

In 21 cases, mostly detainees from Gaza, investigators were not able to connect the minimal data provided by officials to a fatality recorded by human rights groups, either through accounts from released detainees or reporting in the news outlets.

The inmates’ next of kin might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths also, as Israel has created obstacles to locate detainees it is confining. For seven months at the start of the war, the armed services refused to give fundamental details about the condition of numerous of persons detained in Gaza, effectively enacting a approach of involuntary missing persons, as stated by the rights monitoring body.

Insufficient Disclosure

From May 2024, officials have created an digital correspondence for inquiries about Palestinian individuals from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited improvement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on