A damning report from Physicians for Human Rights Israel has revealed that nearly 100 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October 2023.
Systematic Abuse and Medical Neglect
The comprehensive investigation documents at least 98 fatalities over the past two years, with prisoners allegedly suffering from violence, malnutrition and untreated medical conditions. The report suggests this figure likely represents a significant underestimate due to claims of enforced disappearances and allegations of prisoners being shot shortly after their release.
According to the findings, medical neglect appears to be widespread. In one particularly disturbing case, a prisoner reportedly died because insulin needed to treat diabetes was deliberately withheld. The data, compiled from Israeli authorities alongside testimony from lawyers, relatives and witnesses, paints a troubling picture of systematic mistreatment.
Sde Teiman: Centre of Controversy
The report identifies Sde Teiman detention centre in the Negev Desert as the facility with the highest number of alleged fatalities. This military complex has gained notoriety for its brutal conditions and recently became the focus of intense scrutiny after Israel's chief military advocate, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, admitted leaking a video showing a Palestinian prisoner being severely beaten within its walls.
Tomer-Yerushalmi is now under house arrest while the leak is investigated, though critics of the Israeli justice system note the contrast between her swift arrest and the apparent reluctance to investigate the original allegations of widespread violence at Sde Teiman.
Political Context and Official Responses
The allegations emerge against a backdrop of hardening political attitudes towards Palestinian prisoners. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, has publicly demanded harsher prison conditions, personally visited facilities to taunt inmates and called for the death penalty for anyone convicted of terrorism.
The Israeli military maintains that it operates within legal boundaries, stating: "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."
However, the PHRI report concludes 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."
The organisation further alleges that the sharp increase in custodial deaths since October 2023 demonstrates that "the killing of Palestinians in custody has become an additional instrument of state oppression against Palestinians since the onset of the war."
