At least 98 Palestinians Have Been Martyred behind “Israeli” Bars since October 2023

By Staff, Agencies 

“Israeli” data showed that at least 98 Palestinians have been martyred in custody since October 2023, and the real toll is likely substantially higher because hundreds of people detained in Gaza are missing.

Physicians for Human Rights – “Israel” [PHRI] tracked deaths from causes including physical violence, medical neglect and malnutrition for a new report, using freedom of information requests, forensic reports and interviews with lawyers, activists, relatives and witnesses.

“Israeli” authorities only provided comprehensive data for the first eight months of the war. Over this period official figures show an unprecedented casualty rate among Palestinian detainees, on average one death every four days.

Although the total number of deaths charted is significantly higher than other recent estimates, it likely fails to capture the full scale of Palestinian loss, said Naji Abbas, director of the prisoners and detainees’ department at PHRI.

“Even though we are providing evidence for a higher number of deaths than [previously reported] this is not a full picture,” he said. “We are sure that there are still people who died in detention that we don’t know about.”

Classified “Israeli” data indicates the majority of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who died in jail were civilians, according to a parallel investigation by the Guardian, the “Israeli”-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.

Physical violence, torture and other abuse of Palestinians has been normalized across “Israel’s” jail system over two years of war, with the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, boasting about starvation rations and an underground jail holding Palestinians who never see daylight.
Current and former detainees and whistleblowers from the “Israeli” military have all alleged systemic violations of international law.

 “This isn’t just an individual case here and there. It is systemic and it will continue,” Abbas said, in part because there is a culture of near total impunity for killing and mistreating Palestinians.
“Despite this mass number of deaths, over two years no one has been arrested,” Abbas said. “There have been no charges over any killing.

“While these policies are being applied, every Palestinian in detention is in danger, even the healthy ones, even the young ones who have no [underlying] medical issues.”

Some deaths in detention have been high profile, including Adnan al-Bursh, 50, who was the head of orthopedics at al-Shifa hospital, and died in “Ofer” prison after four months in detention.

A detainee held with Bursh testified that he was brought to the yard by guards shortly before his death, visibly injured and naked from the waist down. His body has not been returned to Gaza.

“The detainees’ families may not know about their loved ones’ deaths either, as ‘Israel’ has made it difficult to track Palestinians it is holding. For seven months at the start of the war the ‘Israeli’ military refused to provide basic information about the status of thousands of people detained in Gaza, in effect implementing a policy of forced disappearance,” PHRI said.