Silent Deaths Behind Bars: 72 Palestinian Detainees Die in Israeli Prisons Since Start of Gaza Genocide, What We Know?

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- At least 72 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023. Survivors report brutal torture, medical neglect, and inhumane conditions.

Israeli authorities have been accused of torturing Palestinian detainees. This includes being handcuffed and shackled 24 hours a day, seven days a week – even while sleeping, eating, and using the restroom.

Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation, and inadequate hygiene.

An Israeli reserve soldier exposed lately shocking abuses at Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman military base, describing it as a “sadistic torture site” where dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza died under brutal conditions.

The soldier described Sde Teiman as a place where “people enter alive and leave in body bags.” He said the death of detainees was no longer surprising. “The real surprise,” he added, “is if someone survives.”

He stated that Israeli occupation authorities oversee systematic abuse.

According to his account, Palestinian detainees suffered starvation, untreated war wounds, and denial of basic hygiene needs.
“Some urinated and defecated on themselves because they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” he said.

In August 2024, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli occupation authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in “torture camps”, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.

Its report, titled “Welcome to Hell”, is based on 55 testimonies from former detainees from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and citizens of Israel. The overwhelming majority of these detainees were held without trial.

At least 72 known detainees have died in Israeli prisons since 7 October 2023, according to Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, Among them are at least 43 detainees from Gaza and a child, the highest number in history, according to the prisoner groups.

Since 1967, a total of 309 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli occupation prisons. The groups said the identities of many martyrs among Gaza’s detainees remain undisclosed, as the Israeli occupation continues to conceal them, making this the “bloodiest stage in the history of the prisoner movement.

According to the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies, more than half of the Palestinian prisoners who have died since October 2023, were killed primarily as a result of torture and abuse.

Due to the sharp rise in arrests, particularly among Gazans, Israel has opened new detention and interrogation centers operated directly by its military. According to the, these facilities have become sites of “systematic torture and mistreatment, in clear violation of international law and human rights.”

The center also revealed that Israel has officially acknowledged the deaths of 37 detainees in Sde Teiman detention center since October 2023, though this number is likely only a fraction of the true toll.

Many prisoners from Gaza have been subjected to forced disappearance and held incommunicado under inhumane conditions, creating an environment where extrajudicial killings can occur without oversight or accountability.

In addition to torture, the center documented 29 deaths resulting from medical negligence. Israel is reported to routinely deny prisoners access to basic medical care, holding them in unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions and delaying or outright refusing necessary treatment for extended periods. In many cases, prisoners are only transferred to hospitals when they are on the brink of death.