Palestinian Deaths in Israeli Custody Surge to Nearly 100 Since Gaza War

The number of Palestinians dying in Israeli custody has increased dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza, with nearly 100 people dead according to a report released Monday by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI). The report details how systematic violence and denial of medical care in prisons and detention centers have contributed to many of these deaths.

The findings align with an investigation by The Associated Press, which conducted interviews with more than a dozen people about prison abuses, reviewed autopsy reports, and spoke with former staff at detention facilities. Among those interviewed was a former guard at a military prison notorious for harsh treatment of Palestinians, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.

The guard revealed that detainees were routinely shackled, kicked, and beaten with batons. He said the facility had earned the nickname “graveyard” due to the high number of prisoner deaths occurring there.

Of the 98 prisoner deaths documented by PHRI since the October 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war, 27 occurred in 2023, 50 in 2024, and 21 so far this year, with the most recent on November 2. PHRI believes the actual death toll is “likely significantly higher,” noting that Israel has refused to provide information about hundreds of Palestinians detained during the war.

For perspective, fewer than 30 Palestinians died in Israeli custody in the entire decade before the war. Since the conflict began, the prison population has more than doubled to 11,000 as people were rounded up from Gaza and the West Bank, with the death rate growing even more rapidly.

“The alarming rate at which people are killed in Israeli custody reveals a system that has lost all moral and professional restraint,” said Naji Abbas, a director at PHRI.

Last year, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison system, boasted about degrading prison conditions to the legal minimum. Rights groups say conditions have slightly improved following pressure.

Israel’s Prison Service stated it operates in accordance with the law but declined to comment on the death count, directing inquiries to the military. An army spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, claimed the PHRI report’s death count is inflated but declined to provide what the military believes is the actual number.

Eyewitness Accounts of Abuse

The former guard at Sde Teiman military prison in southern Israel admitted he eventually participated in prisoner beatings after initially hesitating. He described arriving at work one morning to find a motionless Palestinian lying in the yard, with no guards rushing to check on the man, who was dead.

“It was sort of business as usual with the dead guy,” said the guard, who didn’t know the cause of death.

According to his account, prisoners were kept constantly in chains and beaten if they moved or spoke. Most would urinate and defecate on themselves rather than ask to use the bathroom.

A former nurse who worked at Sde Teiman in early 2023 corroborated these accounts, saying chains used to restrain prisoners caused such severe wounds that some required limb amputations. She left the job because she was disturbed by the abusive treatment. Twenty-nine prisoners have died at Sde Teiman since the war began, according to PHRI.

The Israeli military claims prolonged handcuffing is implemented only in exceptional cases with significant security considerations, and that detainees’ medical conditions are taken into account.

Medical Neglect and Malnutrition

It is difficult to determine the precise cause of death for most prisoners. However, eight autopsy reports reviewed by the AP revealed a pattern of physical abuse and medical neglect.

One report concerned 45-year-old Mohammad Husein Ali, who died in Kishon detention center. The report showed multiple signs of physical assault likely causing brain bleeding, with possible use of excessive restraints. His family said he was healthy before being detained from his West Bank home and died within a week of imprisonment.

After Husein Ali was taken, his 2-year-old daughter would stare out the window calling for her father. “She’d say ‘baba, where’s baba’, but after time she stopped asking,” his wife Hadeel said tearfully.

Malnutrition contributed to at least one death, according to PHRI, with a 17-year-old boy dying from starvation. In September, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered improvements to the quality and quantity of food for Palestinian inmates, which rights groups say has led to slight improvements.

Personal Testimony

Sariy Khuorieh, an Israeli-Palestinian lawyer from Haifa who was detained at the start of the war for allegedly inciting violence through social media posts, described witnessing a man’s death after repeated beatings in Megiddo prison.

According to Khuorieh, the 33-year-old West Bank father of four was beaten almost daily. The night before he died, the man screamed in pain for hours while in solitary confinement and repeatedly called for a doctor, but none came.

A report on the man’s autopsy, seen by AP, stated the cause of death was inconclusive but noted signs of old and new bruising, including broken ribs, suggesting violence contributed to his death.

Khuorieh recounted that when guards opened the man’s cell, they kicked and beat him before summoning a physician who tried to revive him and then pronounced him dead. After the pronouncement, Khuorieh said one officer laughed and remarked there was “at least one less” to care about.