The occupied Palestinian territory branch of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) says that Israel must “urgently end the systematic torture and … ill-treatment” of detained Palestinians, as it revealed that at least 75 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli detention since October 7, 2023, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, OHCHR said that between Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and August 31 this year, at least 75 Palestinians, including a 17-year-old, died in Israeli detention. They included 49 individuals from Gaza, 24 from the West Bank and two Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“Israeli authorities have deliberately imposed conditions of detention that amount to torture or other forms of ill-treatment and that have contributed to the deaths of detainees,” said the statement, adding that the “culture of impunity and the denial of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access have predictably fostered extreme violence against Palestinians in Israeli jails”.

In addition to the 75 identified deaths, OHCHR said that Israeli authorities had released information indicating the deaths of another 19 detainees, but without enough data to verify their identities.

At least five more Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, had died in Israeli custody shortly after being shot by Israeli forces, in some cases after a failure to ensure prompt medical attention.