JERUSALEM / AA

Haaretz revealed Friday that the Israeli military opened 57 criminal investigations into the deaths of 56 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and one Lebanese during detention in the war, including 7 investigations into fatal shooting incidents, without filing any indictments.

The Hebrew newspaper said the army opened dozens of criminal investigations into the killing of Palestinians from Gaza while in detention during the war, but none resulted in an indictment.

It added that data obtained through freedom of information requests showed the army opened 57 criminal investigations into the deaths of 56 Palestinians from Gaza and one Lebanese while in detention during the war, and that 7 of them involve fatal shootings.

The newspaper noted that the army does not even know the date of two of these incidents.

It showed that most of the deaths under investigation occurred inside military detention facilities equipped with surveillance cameras, with many witnesses present, both soldiers and detainees.

It continued that the army was unable to identify suspects in most of the criminal investigations, attributing the lack of completion to evidentiary complexities in combat conditions.

According to the newspaper, most investigations into detainee deaths were opened during 2024, which saw a record number of detainees from Gaza, while 19 investigations were opened in 2023, including 13 in October, and 3 in 2025.

It quoted unnamed sources saying that some detainees died after being transferred to detention facilities while injured, and that investigations in those cases began automatically under a military procedure requiring an investigation into any death inside a military facility.

The sources added that other deaths resulted from illness or lack of appropriate medical care.

In a related context, the newspaper reported that most investigations opened by the Israeli military into allegations of looting property in Gaza and Lebanon also resulted in no indictments, despite the intervention of Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and his demand that military units in Lebanon report such acts.

It added that so far only one indictment for looting has been filed, ending with a soldier convicted of theft in a plea deal after he took money from a house in Gaza and tried to deposit it, before it turned out the banknotes were counterfeit.

It noted that another indictment was filed against a soldier for taking 3 motorcycles out of Gaza, while other cases where soldiers seized electrical appliances were dealt with through disciplinary measures.

Follows//