Disappearances

In the absence of a proper system for registering arrests, and as the number of Palestinian detainees held by Israeli security forces grows, in 2026 many Palestinian families from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remain without basic information as to the whereabouts of arrested family members, adults and children alike.

In October 2023, in a breach of its obligations under international law, Israel stopped providing the ICRC with information on detainees and banned it from visiting them. ACRI, PHRI, HaMoked and Gisha petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that the State renew ICRC visits with Palestinian inmates more than two years ago. In its latest response (Hebrew) in May 2026, the State agreed for the first time to allow ICRC visits to incarceration facilities, but persisted in its refusal to allow the organization to meet with inmates. Such an arrangement fails to meet inmates’ needs, does not align with the ICRC’s working methods, and fails to comply with Israel’s obligations under international law. In practice, at the time of this writing, the sweeping ban imposed in October 2023 remains in force.

Given these circumstances, human rights organizations have, in many cases, become the only place to which families seeking basic information about their loved ones can turn. In 2024–2025, HaMoked processed an unprecedented number of requests to trace Palestinian detainees’ whereabouts, with 29,137 requests in 2025 alone. Of these, 11,781 were new requests, and 17,356 were repeat requests concerning detainees HaMoked had traced and who were then transferred to another facility with no notice to the families, detainees HaMoked had been unable to trace, and detainees released and rearrested. By comparison, in 2022, the number of tracing requests handled by HaMoked stood at 4,481.

With regard to tracing Gaza residents, the situation is even more dire. In many cases, tracing requests lead to dead ends, including where the individuals in question were last seen in the custody of the military.

Over the past two years, HaMoked has also had to file 119 habeas corpus petitions in an effort to compel the authorities to inform families of their loved ones’ whereabouts. In most cases, the petitions revealed the detainees’ location. However, in 39 cases (about a third of all cases) the authorities did not provide any information in response to the petition. In three cases, the court stated it would give a decision once the High Court gives its ruling in the aforementioned petition, which, as noted, has been pending for more than two years. Despite the evidence presented in the petitions and in two letters of complaint sent by HaMoked to the MAG, the state has not launched an investigation or conducted a review of military procedures regarding the registration of detainees.

Habeas corpus is one of the oldest and most important tools for protecting human rights, originally intended to safeguard every person from unlawful or arbitrary arrest. Petitions for a writ of habeas corpus may be filed only when a first-degree relative can sign a power of attorney and submit a detailed affidavit describing the circumstances of the arrest. In practice, in thousands of cases handled over the past two years obtaining affidavits from relatives of Gaza detainees was impossible due to war or displacement. As a result, there remain information gaps with respect to thousands of Gaza residents who were last seen when taken into detention.

Further reading:

HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual: Enforced Disappearances of Gaza Residents in Detention: Patterns, Legal Implications, and Oversight Gaps Since October 2023, May 2026