GENEVA, August 28, 2025 (WAFA) - Condemning the enforced disappearance of starving Palestinian civilians seeking food aid at distribution centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group of UN experts today urged Israeli authorities to put an end to the heinous crime against an already vulnerable population.
“Reports of enforced disappearances targeting starving civilians seeking their basic right to food are not only shocking, but amount to torture. Using food as a tool to conduct targeted and mass disappearances needs to end now,” the experts said.
The experts received reports that a number of individuals, including one child, who visited aid distribution sites in Rafah, have been forcibly disappeared. “Aerial bombardment and daily gunfire at and around the crowded facilities have resulted in mass casualties,” note the experts in a statement.
The statement said that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is obligated to provide secure distribution sites and has contracted private military security companies to that end. According to information received, the Israeli Forces are also operating in and around aid distribution sites and are reportedly directly involved in the enforced disappearance of people seeking aid, it added.
“We are particularly concerned that once again the Palestinian people have been targeted and punished as such, and in the most desperate moment of man-made starvation, denied the aid they are forced to rely on, already laden with obstacles to access, the distribution points pose additional risks for devastated individuals of being forcibly disappeared,” the experts said.
“We fear that increased reports of enforced disappearances at aid distribution points will discourage individuals from accessing essential food assistance, further aggravating the risk of starvation,” they added.
The statement warned that Israeli occupation forces are refusing to provide information on the fate and whereabouts of persons they have deprived of their liberty, “in apparent violation of the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of enforced disappearances.”
“The failure to acknowledge deprivation of liberty by State agents and refusal to acknowledge detention constitute an enforced disappearance.”
“The international community cannot stay silent in the face of such an apparent constellation of abhorrent crimes,” the experts said, calling for swift action to end the atrocities.
“Israeli authorities must clarify the fate and whereabouts of disappeared persons and investigate the enforced disappearances thoroughly and impartially and punish perpetrators. The obligation to conduct such investigations is a norm of jus cogens that must not be curtailed or impeded in any way. Any delay should be promptly addressed by international justice,” they said.
The experts noted that while these concerns have been raised directly with the Israeli Government, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and private military security companies concerned, close independent monitoring is necessary pending the urgent dismantlement of this inhumane aid system and the return of a UN-led humanitarian system.
T.R.
