Israeli data indicate that at least 98 Palestinians have died in custody since October 2023, and human rights researchers believe the actual number is considerably higher because hundreds of detainees from Gaza remain unaccounted for, and this growing uncertainty has intensified concerns about the scale of mistreatment across Israel’s detention system.
A new report by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) has compiled evidence from freedom of information requests, forensic evaluations and interviews with lawyers, families and former detainees, and it suggests that deaths have resulted from physical violence, medical neglect and malnutrition, while systemic failures have deepened the dangers faced by Palestinians held without clarity about their legal status, The Gaurdian reported.
Israeli authorities released detailed figures only for the first eight months of the war, and during this period, the official records showed an unprecedented rate of fatalities, with one Palestinian detainee dying on average every four days, while updates from military and prison bodies ceased at different points in 2024, leaving human rights groups to piece together further cases independently.
PHRI researchers identified an additional 35 deaths after the last official updates and received confirmations from Israeli agencies, yet they maintain that many more cases remain undocumented because Gaza detainees have been held without transparency, especially during the lengthy period in which the military refused to provide even basic information about prisoners’ whereabouts.
Parallel investigations by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, supported by access to classified Israeli data, suggest that most Palestinians from Gaza who died in custody were civilians rather than combatants, and a comparison with a military intelligence database tracking more than 47,000 fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad showed that only a small fraction of recorded deaths involved individuals on that list, while dozens of civilian detainees had already died by that time.
The broader category under which these deaths are recorded, described as “security prisoners,” includes people held without charge or trial as well as Palestinians detained for political reasons in the occupied West Bank, and the toll also includes three Palestinians with Israeli citizenship or residency.
Rights groups argue that physical violence, torture and degrading treatment have become normalised within both civilian and military detention facilities since the war began, and they note that senior Israeli officials have publicly endorsed policies that reduce food, restrict light and worsen conditions for detainees.
Current and former prisoners, along with whistleblowers from the Israeli military, have reported systemic violations of international law, and the rise in fatalities across at least a dozen facilities marks a stark contrast with the pre-war decade, during which only two or three such deaths were typically recorded each year.
Accountability remains rare, as only one case involving the assault of detainees has proceeded to trial, and attempts to prosecute soldiers linked to more severe incidents have been derailed by political pressure and public protests, leaving families without answers and reinforcing the perception of impunity.