Date: 29/8/2026
Press Release
Al-Dameer: Enforced Disappearance is a Systematic Practice and Part of the Crime of Genocide
Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights–Gaza: Tomorrow, 30 August 2026, marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Israeli occupation forces continue to practice the crime of enforced disappearance as a systematic policy against hundreds of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip, by concealing their whereabouts, refusing to disclose their fate or their status and conditions of detention, and denying their families, lawyers, and relevant humanitarian bodies access to information concerning them. These practices constitute a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and an assault on the rights of their families to protection and to know the truth and the fate of their relatives.
Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights confirms that it has received hundreds of cases concerning Palestinians believed to have been subjected to enforced disappearance, and has followed up on many of these cases before the competent Israeli authorities, demanding disclosure of their fate and places of detention and ensuring that they enjoy legal protection. However, the Israeli occupation authorities have failed to provide adequate responses regarding dozens of cases, despite the availability of information, data, and evidence indicating that a number of these individuals have been arrested and detained in the occupation’s detention facilities and camps.
According to the follow-up conducted by Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights, the Association documented 514 cases of enforced disappearance during the ongoing war of genocide against the Gaza Strip. The Association has not received responses from the Israeli occupation authorities regarding a large number of these cases, whether through acknowledging the arrest of the persons concerned or disclosing their places of detention and fate. According to the information available to the Association, approximately (9,500) persons remain missing and their fate remains unknown since the beginning of the war of genocide against the Gaza Strip.
Al-Dameer Association confirms that it has received responses indicating the release of some detainees, but they have not been reached and have not returned to their homes and families to date. This further aggravates the state of ambiguity and anxiety and raises genuine concerns regarding their unknown fate, particularly in light of the absence of official and reliable information concerning their whereabouts or what they were subjected to during detention or after their release.
In the same context, dozens of leaked photographs and video recordings taken by Israeli occupation soldiers of Palestinian detainees have circulated, showing the detainees in humiliating and inhumane conditions, while they were shackled and blindfolded and under the control of the occupation forces. These materials, alongside the testimonies and information documented by the Association, constitute evidence and indications of arrests and detention operations, as well as of the conditions and treatment to which a number of detainees were subjected, and require investigation and accountability in accordance with international law.
The Association confirms that enforced disappearance is not merely an incidental consequence of war or military operations; rather, it represents a grave practice used against Palestinians in the context of military operations and arrests, resulting in depriving victims of the protection guaranteed under international law, exposing them to the risk of torture, ill-treatment, and grave violations, in addition to depriving them of basic legal safeguards. This practice also leaves victims’ families in a continuous state of anxiety and uncertainty and deprives them of an inherent right to know the truth and the fate of their children and relatives.
The Association considers that the continuation of enforced disappearance, alongside arbitrary detention, the deprivation of detainees of communication with the outside world, family visits, access to lawyers and humanitarian bodies, and fair trial guarantees, constitutes a pattern of violations that requires an independent, comprehensive, and effective international investigation, accountability of those responsible, prosecution of perpetrators, and ensuring that they do not enjoy impunity.
Accordingly, Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights calls for the following:
The international community, the United Nations and all its relevant agencies and mechanisms, to assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities concerning cases of enforced disappearance and missing persons from the Gaza Strip, and to act urgently and effectively to ensure disclosure of their fate and whereabouts, and to guarantee the right of their families to know the truth.
The Israeli occupation authorities to immediately and fully disclose the fate of all Palestinians subjected to enforced disappearance and missing persons, reveal the places of detention of detainees, ensure that all cases of arrest and detention are officially registered, and inform the competent authorities and the families of detainees of their fate, in a manner that ensures their protection from enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment, and all forms of violations.
To immediately and unconditionally allow the International Committee of the Red Cross, lawyers, and competent humanitarian and human rights bodies access to all detention facilities, prisons, and detention camps, to independently verify the conditions of detainees and the circumstances of their detention, and to ensure that they are enabled to communicate with their families and lawyers and that legal and humanitarian protection is provided to them.