RAMALLAH, August 30, 2026 (WAFA) – Palestinian prisoners’ institutions said today that Israeli occupation authorities have continued, for the third consecutive year, to use enforced disappearance as a systematic policy against thousands of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip who were detained during the genocidal war. The institutions stressed that the fate and whereabouts of many of these detainees remain entirely unknown.
In a joint statement issued today, Sunday, on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, observed annually on August 30, the prisoners’ institutions stressed that the occupation’s continued withholding of information about detainees, refusal to disclose their names, places of detention, and health conditions, and denial of contact with their families, lawyers, and human rights organizations do not constitute merely isolated violations of detainees’ rights. Rather, the institutions emphasized that these actions form an integrated system of enforced disappearance used to strip detainees of legal protection and create conditions conducive to torture, ill-treatment, medical crimes, and other violations away from oversight and accountability.
The institutions emphasized that enforced disappearance is absolutely prohibited under international law and cannot be justified under any circumstances, including during war or armed conflict.
They highlighted that the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines it as the deprivation of liberty followed by a refusal to acknowledge the detention or by concealment of the person’s fate or whereabouts, thereby placing them outside the protection of the law.
The institutions further noted that international law recognizes the right of victims and their families to know the truth and the fate of their relatives, as well as their right to reparation and compensation. They underscored that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies enforced disappearance, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, as a crime against humanity.
The statement detailed how, since the start of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the occupation authorities have used legal and military measures to entrench this policy, including the detention of thousands of civilians without adequate safeguards, reliance on the “unlawful combatant” law, the establishment of special detention camps, and sweeping restrictions on access by lawyers, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and human rights organizations to detainees.
The institutions added that, to date, there is no accurate and comprehensive figure for the number of Palestinians subjected to enforced disappearance in the Gaza Strip, amid immense difficulties in documenting cases and determining the fate of detainees and missing persons.
They emphasized that these challenges have been compounded by the scale of destruction, killing, and forced displacement, the targeting and obstruction of search and rescue teams, and the occupation’s deliberate policy of withholding information.
The institutions noted that over the past three years, they have undertaken extensive efforts to investigate and inquire about the fate of thousands of detainees from the Gaza Strip. While the occupation authorities initially responded that they had no information about hundreds of those reported missing, photographs of some of these detainees later emerged, proving they were held despite the prior denials. Furthermore, following legal efforts and petitions filed with the Israeli Supreme Court, the institutions reported that the occupation authorities eventually acknowledged holding the bodies of several detainees, without providing the dates or circumstances surrounding their killing.
The institutions noted that the case of journalist Ehab Diab from the Gaza Strip is among the specific cases they have recently followed. According to the statement, several human rights organizations continued efforts to determine his fate over the past period, repeatedly receiving responses from Israeli authorities claiming that no information was available about him. However, after a human rights organization in the 1948 territories petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court, it was eventually revealed that the occupation army was withholding his body. Consequently, the institutions officially announced on August 9, 2026, that Diab had died inside the occupation’s prisons, although the exact date of his death remained unknown.
The institutions emphasized that a detainee’s enforced disappearance from the outside world cannot be separated from the system of violations to which they are subjected inside Israeli detention facilities. They warned that the total absence of information and legal and human rights oversight creates an environment conducive to crimes being committed entirely away from the eyes of the world.
The prisoners’ institutions noted that, based on testimonies and statements they were able to collect, Gaza detainees have been subjected to brutal practices from the moment of their detention, throughout interrogation, and during their transfer to prisons and detention camps. They reported that these practices, foremost among them systematic torture, ill-treatment, and medical crimes, have resulted in the death of dozens of detainees.
The institutions stressed that the policy of enforced disappearance extends beyond living detainees, noting that the occupation authorities continue to withhold the bodies of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including detainees who died inside prisons and detention camps, as well as the bodies of others held in morgues and what are known as “cemeteries of numbers.
The institutions stressed that withholding bodies and refusing to hand them over to their families constitutes a severe violation of the right of victims and their families to know the truth, recover the bodies of their loved ones, and bury them in a manner that preserves human dignity.
Furthermore, they warned that this practice raises serious concerns regarding the circumstances and causes of death, while deliberately obstructing independent and transparent investigations.
The prisoners’ institutions stressed that the crime of enforced disappearance was not carried out randomly or as a result of individual misconduct. Instead, they stated that it was institutionalized through a system of orders, legislation, and military and judicial practices that provided legal and institutional cover for the detention and disappearance of thousands of Palestinians.
They explained that the occupation’s judicial system played a role in entrenching this policy by using the “unlawful combatant” law as a framework for detaining Gaza detainees. Concurrently, they noted that the occupation authorities refused to disclose sufficient information about the number of detainees, their identities, and places of detention. While human rights organizations also petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to compel the disclosure of detainees’ identities and places of detention, these legal proceedings ultimately failed to bring an end to the policy of enforced disappearance, said the joint statement.
The institutions noted that, according to figures released by the occupation prisons administration as of early August 2026, the number of detainees classified as “unlawful combatants” stood at 1,358. Furthermore, they reported that 53 Gaza detainees whose identities were known to the institutions had died, out of a total of 99 detainees and prisoners who had died since the start of the genocidal war and whose identities were known.
The prisoners’ institutions stressed that the continued enforced disappearance of Palestinian detainees, amid the ongoing genocide, places the international community under a direct legal and moral responsibility. They emphasized that this responsibility is particularly urgent as families continue to be denied their most basic right: to know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
Against this backdrop, the prisoners’ institutions called on the international community, the United Nations, and its human rights mechanisms to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and take binding measures to determine the fate of those subjected to enforced disappearance.
Specifically, the institutions called for:
- Ensuring international access to detainees and access for lawyers.
- Launching independent investigations into crimes of enforced disappearance, torture, and killing.
- Holding those responsible for these actions accountable.
- Compelling the occupation authorities to hand over the withheld bodies of those killed.
The institutions stressed that the continued concealment of the fate of hundreds of detainees is not merely a lack of information. Instead, they stated that it is a systematic crime being committed in full view of the world. Furthermore, they emphasized that ending enforced disappearance and determining the fate of detainees is not a humanitarian demand that can be deferred, but a genuine test of the international community’s commitment to upholding international law and saving humanity from the ongoing path of genocide.
T.R.
