Civilians represent vast majority of Gaza detainees in Israeli detention
JERUSALEM
Civilians make up the vast majority of Palestinians from Gaza held without charge or trial by Israel and designated as “unlawful combatant,” classified data showed on Sept. 3.
The data revealed by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call showed that only one in four detainees from Gaza are identified as fighters by Israel’s military intelligence.
Elderly people, children, medical workers, teachers, civil servants, journalist, and disabled individuals are among those held indefinitely without charge or trial.
Among the detainees were Fahamiya al-Khalidi, an 82-year-old with Alzheimer’s who was abducted with her female carer in Gaza City in December 2023 and held in Israel for six weeks, the data showed.
A single mother, Abeer Ghaban, 40, was also abducted and separated from her young children by the Israeli army.
When the mother was released after 53 days, she found the children begging on the streets.
“They were alive, but seeing the state they had been in for 53 days without me broke me,” Ghaban said.
“I wished I had remained in prison rather than seeing them like that.”
Nesreen Deifallah, a Palestinian mother, spent months searching for her 16-year-old son Moatasem, who went missing while looking for food on Dec. 3, 2024.
Eight months later, the mother met a recently freed detainee, who told her that he had met her son in detention.
“I fainted when I learned that my son was still alive,” she said. Still, she cannot confirm where he is or contact him.
Rights groups warn that the real proportion of civilians in Israeli detention is even higher.
“At most, perhaps one in six or seven might have any link to Hamas or other militant factions, and even then, not necessarily through their military wings,” Samir Zaqout, deputy director of the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, told The Guardian.
The unlawful combatant legislation allows Israel to hold Palestinians indefinitely without evidence in open court, denying them access to lawyers for extended periods.
The data came after Israel's military has been building up its forces for the planned operation to seize Gaza City, the Palestinian territory's largest urban center located in its northern part, despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians suffering dire humanitarian conditions.
Israel estimates that its imminent offensive on Gaza City would displace one million Palestinians, according to a senior military official.
The senior official from COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said "approximately 70,000" Palestinians had already left Gaza's north in recent days, fleeing the Israeli advance.
Briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, the official said Israeli authorities expected "1 million people" to flee south, without giving a specific timeframe.
The vast majority of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been displaced at least once during nearly two years of war.
