RAMALLAH(Palestine Foundation Information Center) Palestinian Prisoners institutions said on Friday that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) subjected thousands of Gazans to enforced disappearance since the beginning of the war of genocide, specifically with the start of the ground invasion of Gaza, and the arrest of thousands of civilians from different areas of the Strip, in addition to the arrests that affected thousands of Gazans who were working in the 1948 occupied territories before the war.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association added in a joint statement on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, which falls on August 30, that “the crime of enforced disappearance affected children, women and the elderly, in addition to targeting dozens of medical personnel during the repeated invasions of hospitals in the Strip, the most prominent of which was the big invasion of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
During Israeli arrest operations, photos went viral on social media showing hundreds of civilians, who were rounded up from different areas of the Strip, naked and crowded in large numbers in open areas, in the streets, and in Israeli military vehicles in inhumane and humiliating conditions.
The three human rights groups said, “the Israeli judicial system contributed to the consolidation of the crime of enforced disappearance, allowing torture crimes against thousands of Gaza detainees based on the “unlawful combatant” law issued by the Israeli Knesset in 2002, which constitutes an explicit violation of the integrity of litigation procedures.”
The prisoners’ institutions indicated that the IOF has worked since the beginning of the war of genocide to create special detention camps allocated for Gaza detainees, in addition to central prisons, the most prominent of which was the Sde Teiman camp, in which the most heinous torture crimes were practiced, in addition to the military Anatot and Ofer detention camps.
The prisoners’ institutions renewed their demands for adopting decisive decisions to hold the Israeli occupation officials accountable, and to push for a ceasefire and for halting the Israeli aggression and crimes committed against the Palestinian people and detainees.
No accurate data are available about the total number of detainees of Gaza, including women and children, and the martyrs who died due to torture or execution.
