Accusation against the Israeli judiciary of legitimizing enforced disappearance and torture of Gaza detainees.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club revealed the escalation of enforced disappearances against thousands of Gaza residents since the war on the strip began in October 2023, accusing the Israeli judiciary of entrenching this crime by legitimizing torture and detaining prisoners in isolation from the outside world.

The club confirmed that the ambiguity surrounding the fate of the detainees and the difficulty in accessing accurate data about their numbers or conditions reflects the extent of ongoing violations, amid continued international calls to stop the aggression and hold the occupying authorities accountable for their crimes against Palestinians.

This was stated in a statement published by the Prisoners' Club yesterday, Saturday, on the occasion of the "International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances," which falls on August 30 each year.

According to the club, the occupation continues to commit the crime of enforced disappearance, which has affected thousands of Gaza residents, and has particularly escalated since the occupation forces carried out ground invasion operations in the strip (at the end of October 2023), with children and women among the victims.

It clarified that this crime "has formed the most prominent cover for the horrific torture crimes committed against Gaza detainees, which led to the martyrdom of dozens of them."

The report highlighted the role of the Israeli judicial system, which contributed to "entrenching the crime of enforced disappearance by legitimizing torture crimes against Gaza detainees, by detaining thousands of them based on the unlawful combatant law enacted by the Knesset in 2002, which provided a cover for widespread torture practices.

The Prisoners' Club indicated that the amendments made to the "unlawful combatant" law at the beginning of the war "also contributed to entrenching the crime of enforced disappearance, alongside the occupation's refusal to disclose any information about Gaza detainees or their numbers."

It renewed its call to the international human rights system "to overcome the ongoing and systematic state of impotence in the face of the genocide, and to make clear decisions to hold the Israeli occupying state accountable and stop its comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people."

It pointed out that to date, "there is no accurate data on the number of Gaza detainees or those who have been martyred in torture or execution crimes, except for what the occupation prison administration announced until the beginning of August 2025."

The Prisoners' Club noted that Israeli data indicated that about 2,378 Palestinians from Gaza have been classified as "unlawful combatants" since 2023, while the number of Palestinians from Gaza detainees who died inside Israeli prisons is about 46 individuals whose identities have been confirmed, out of 77 detainees who died inside the prisons since the onset of the genocide, according to the statement.

According to the United Nations, enforced disappearance occurs when "persons are arrested and detained or abducted against their will or deprived of their liberty in any other way by officials of various branches or levels of government or by an organized group, or ordinary individuals acting in the name of the government or with its support, directly or indirectly, or with its consent, and then refusing to disclose their fate or whereabouts or refusing to acknowledge their deprivation of liberty, which deprives these persons of the protection of the law.