Scores of Palestinian prisoners have died in custody since the start of the war in Gaza, according to a human rights group which claims prisoners are being denied medical care and are the victims of systematic and brutal violence.
The report, from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI), tracked deaths due to a variety of causes, including violence, malnutrition and untreated injuries.
Its data came partly from Israeli authorities, and also from lawyers, relatives and witnesses.
The report says that at least 98 Palestinian prisoners have died over the past two years. However, the PHRI adds that the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate, citing claims of “enforced disappearances” and allegations of prisoners being shot shortly after they were released from detention.
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In one case, the report claims that a prisoner died because the insulin, which they needed to treat diabetes, was withheld.
The report claims that just under half of these deaths – 46 – occurred in the Israeli prison service while the remaining 52 deaths involved people being held in military facilities.
The highest number of fatalities are alleged to have happened at the Sde Teiman detention centre, a facility located in the Negev Desert and notorious for its brutality. It has recently become the focus of huge attention after Israel’s chief military advocate, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, admitted leaking a video that appears to show a Palestinian prisoner being severely beaten in Sde Teiman.
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Tomer-Yerushalmi is now under house arrest while the leak is investigated. Critics of the Israeli justice system say that her arrest contrasts with the reluctance of authorities to investigate the original, and widespread, allegations of violence carried out on prisoners in the Sde Teiman centre.
The report’s allegations come at a time when questions of crime and punishment are receiving plenty of attention. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister responsible for national security, has demanded even harsher conditions, visited jails to taunt prisoners and also called for the death penalty to be introduced for anyone convicted of terrorism.
The Israeli military told us “individuals in Gaza are detained when there is reasonable suspicion of their involvement in terrorist activities…and [if deemed necessary] are detained in designated facilities within Israeli territory”.
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The PHRI report concludes that there is “little doubt that the deaths of many detained Palestinians were the result of systematic actions by soldiers and prison guards, carried out with the encouragement, or at the very least the tacit approval, of their superiors”.
It further alleges that “the sharp rise in the number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli incarceration facilities since October 7, 2023, compared to previous years, demonstrates that the killing of Palestinians in custody has become an additional instrument of state against Palestinians oppression since the onset of the war”.
Israel’s prison service insists it operates within the confines of the law. The Israeli military said its rules around detention are “in full alignment with Israeli law and the Geneva Conventions”.
Its statement continued: “The IDF is aware of incidents of deaths of detainees, including detainees who were detained with a pre-existing illness or injury as a result of the hostilities. As per standard protocol, an investigation is conducted for each death of a detainee by the military police.
“According to the law, every detainee held under a detention order is subject to judicial review. Every detainee has the right to be represented by a lawyer.”
