HaMoked in new report: “Unaccounted For – Disappearance of Gaza Palestinians After They Were in the Custody of Israeli Security Forces”; HCJ rejects HaMoked petitions based on State’s claims of “no indication of arrest or detention”

New report by HaMoked on the grave phenomenon of mass forced disappearance of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, employed by Israel in the framework of the horrific war which broke out over a year ago. Over the past year, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, holding them in inhumane conditions far below the required minimum standard, with systemic violence and abuse. Hundreds of them are held for long periods of time incommunicado, in unknown locations, isolated from the outside world and without judicial review, pursuant to Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, 5762-2002, and subsequent amendments.

HaMoked is practically the only entity through which Palestinians can find relatives in Israeli detention, as no information is provided directly to families. But at the outbreak of the war, Israel stopped providing HaMoked any information regarding Gaza detainees in violation of its basic obligation to update the ICRC and establish an information center to supply families with reliable information about their loved-ones’ arrest and whereabouts. Only in May 2024, following HaMoked’s determined legal battle to trace hundreds of Gazans incarcerated since the outbreak of the war, did the State supply an email address via which it is possible to coordinate a visit by an attorney to an inmate.

However, in dozens of cases handled by HaMoked, Israeli authorities failed to trace Gazans who were reportedly last seen near Israeli soldiers or in their custody in the Gaza Strip or in Israeli incarceration facilities. From May to October 2024, in some 400 of HaMoked’s requests, the military replied that there was “no indication of arrest or detention” of that person. In some of these 400 cases, it is possible that the person was not in fact arrested but that contact with him had been lost in the chaotic circumstances of war. Yet, as said, in many others, the missing had been seen either by their families near or in the hands of Israeli soldiers or by former inmates in Israeli detention.

Thus far, HaMoked submitted 24 petitions for writs of habeas corpus concerning 30 individuals – including a 17-year-old youth and a 5-year-old girl – following the response of “no indication of arrest or detention”. Most of these petitions were rejected without any information emerging regarding the fate of the petitioners. All of these cases indicate a systemic failure of Israeli forces to document the holding of people in custody for whatever length of time and of their circumstances during their holding. In the new report, HaMoked noted that this situation, where it is impossible to trace and learn the fate of people who were seen in military custody, breeds unacceptable treatment of those held in custody, and frustrates any possibility of investigating suspicions regarding torture and severe violation of rights. HaMoked calls on the military to uphold its duties under the laws of war and to diligently record every individual held in its custody, including those not deemed detainees, or those held briefly as well as those who died in its custody; to hold people in designated locations dedicated for this purpose, even when in proximity to a combat area; to establish a central database to collate all such information or to provide such information to the ICRC. If the military does not acknowledge it is bound by these duties, it is up to the HCJ to order the military to act accordingly and clarify to the military that it is subject to international law, and in particular the laws of war.