Four Palestinians killed during Shin Bet interrogations since 7 October

At least four Palestinians "died" during interrogations conducted by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, since 7 October 2023, the Israeli daily Haaretz has revealed.

Following an investigation by the Investigation Complaints Unit at the Ministry of Justice (MBAT), the attorney general’s office ruled out 0pening a criminal investigation against Shin Bet personnel in two of the cases.

One of them concerns the death of Dr Iyad al-Rantisi, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital’s maternity department, whose body bore signs of trauma after interrogation.

On 18 June, Haaretz reported that al-Rantisi died at an interrogation facility run by Shin Bet six days after his arrest on 10 November when he was fleeing northern Gaza with his family along an Israeli-designated “safe corridor”.

While the official cause of al-Rantisi’s death was a heart attack, the MBAT investigation found injuries on his body, suggesting that he suffered violence during interrogation.

While a criminal investigation will not be opened into his case, MBAT’s findings were sent to the Prisoner Investigation Unit.

According to Haaretz, Shin Bet and the Israeli Security Service (ISS) would not confirm whether the three other prisoners were captured in Gaza or the occupied West Bank, stating only that they were arrested “during the ground manoeuvre”. They also refused to disclose which facilities the detainees died in.

According to data published by the Shomrim news site, from 2014 to July 2022 only two criminal investigations were opened against Shin Bet personnel regarding their conduct during interrogations.

In response to a freedom of information request by the Success Association on behalf of Haaretz, the Prison Service revealed that 11 detainees and prisoners died between 7 October 2023 and July 2024. 

Two of those deaths, which occurred at the Kishon and Shmaka detention centres where Shin Bet interrogation departments are based, had not previously been made public.

Additionally, Haaretz noted a discrepancy between the dates of deaths provided by the Prison Service, and those previously published in the media.

Shrouded in secrecy

Shin Bet does not generally publish information about detainees who have died in its custody, with deaths of detainees captured in Gaza since 7 October shrouded in secrecy.

In recent months, the security agency has maintained that deaths of detainees from Gaza are the responsibility of the Israeli military.

According to the prisoners’ advocacy group, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), 49 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since October 2023. This figure includes 30 prisoners from Gaza.

Dozens of testimonies seen by Middle East Eye and other media outlets detail systematic abuse practised in Israeli prisons against Palestinian detainees since 7 October.

In November, the PPS and the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs warned of “catastrophic conditions” in Israeli jails following the deaths of Samih Suleiman Muhammad Aliwi and Anwar Shaaban Muhammad Aslim.

The two monitoring groups said that Aliwi and Aslim were subject to torture, medical negligence and forced starvation.

In early August, the Israeli rights group B'Tselem accused Israeli authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in torture camps, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.

In March, MEE spoke to former Palestinian detainees captured by Israeli forces in Gaza, who reported that they were physically tortured with dogs and electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and degrading conditions.