On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance is still being perpetrated as an official policy by the Israeli government in Gaza and constitutes one of the main pillars of its ongoing genocide against Palestinians. Although underreported, many Palestinian families in Gaza still do not know the fate of their loved ones after two years of ongoing genocide characterized by mass killing, destruction, forced displacement, and starvation. These families are not only struggling to survive as a result of deprivation of the minimum humanitarian requirements, but their suffering is compounded by being deprived of the right to know the truth regarding the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. The uncertainty has exacerbated their anguish as they continue to think of their loved ones while enduring unbearable living conditions resulting from the international community’s failure to end Israel’s genocidal military campaign, which is entering its second year.

There is no exact number of missing Palestinians yet in Gaza, but they are estimated to be in thousands. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, as of July 2025, more than 11,000 Palestinians are missing, including 4,700 women and children. The Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that at least 14,222 Palestinians are missing or trapped under the rubble as of February 2025. Determining the exact number and fate has been made almost impossible due to Israel’s enforced disappearance policy enabled by the chaotic situation created over two years of genocide through the mass detention, killing, destruction, and forced displacement of Palestinians as well as the targeting of the search and rescue team and their vehicles.

Thousands of bodies of Palestinians are also held by the Israeli authorities, including detainees who have died in Israeli detention. According to the National Campaign for the Recovery of Martyrs’ Bodies, the Israel authorities are holding bodies of more than 1,500 Palestinians from Gaza since 7 October 2023 at the Sde Teiman military camp. In addition, the Campaign has also stated that authorities continue to hold the bodies of 726 slain Palestinians in refrigerators and so called “cemeteries of number”, among them 67 children, 85 prisoners, and 10 women.

Last month, the UN experts have acknowledged the disappearance of around 4,000 Palestinians, among them women and children, although the number is much higher. In the statement they published last month, the UN experts said that “[t]wenty months of assault by the Israeli army have resulted, among others, in widespread patterns of enforced disappearances among Palestinians in Gaza and other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including health and care workers, journalists, and other professionals, as well as women and children.” The experts said that the enforced disappearance of Palestinians has been facilitated through military orders and legislation allowing for indefinite detention without trial of so-called ‘unlawful combatants’ and others, in breach of international human rights and humanitarian law, adding that “[t]he pain and suffering for relatives of the disappeared can constitute a form of psychological torture and other inhumane treatment.” The experts called for the immediate disclosure of the fate, whereabouts, legal status, and state of health of all Palestinians who have been forcibly disappeared, as well as their immediate release “unless they are charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and prosecuted in proceedings that comply with international standards.”

Over the last two years, PCHR has documented 383 cases of enforced disappearance in Gaza, including 15 children and 12 women. Among the victims are journalists, nurses, doctors, civil servants, university students, and farmers as well as persons with disabilities. When PCHR sent communications to Israeli authorities to inquire about the fate and whereabouts of these individuals, the authorities responded that there was no data indicating the arrest or detention of the individuals mentioned in PCHR’s requests. However, PCHR has evidence and eyewitnesses proving that many of them were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF).

PCHR’s documentation of enforced disappearance cases includes: (1) Palestinians last seen near the security fence separating Israel and Gaza on 7 October 2023; (2) Palestinians arrested during ground invasions carried out by the IOF in Maghazi refugee camp (January 2024), Gaza City (January 2024), Khan Younis (February 2024), and Rafah (May 2024); (3) Palestinians who were trying to obtain humanitarian aid trucks near Al-Nabulsi roundabout in Gaza City; and (4) Palestinians who disappeared after trying to cross from northern Gaza to the south through the Netzarim checkpoint, which separated Gaza Governorate and the Northern Governorate from the Middle Governorate, Khan Younis Governorate, and Rafah Governorate.

In addition, PCHR received dozens of communications on the disappearance of dozens of starving Palestinians, including children, while trying to obtain aid from the deadly and humiliating distribution sites run by the so called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), a partner in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, where famine has been officially declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification  Since the GHF began its operations, 2,158 Palestinians have been killed and over 15,000 have been injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

While some of the victims are still alive in Israeli prisons and military camps enduring systematic torture and ill-treatment, some have died in detention. The authorities have refused to provide information about the circumstances of their deaths or to hand over their bodies to their families in a manner that allows them to be appropriately identified. PCHR has been informed of the death of seven Palestinian detainees. PCHR presumes that many of the victims whose cases have been documented were killed by the IOF in Gaza, especially those who attempted to cross from the north to the south or vice versa via the Netzarim checkpoint.

It is worth noting that an enforced disappearance occurs not only when the state arrests a person and conceals their fate or whereabouts, but also when the family is denied knowledge of the circumstances that led to the individual’s death and denied access to the body.

The documented cases, along with two detailed submissions highlighting the situation and PCHR’s work on the ground, were submitted to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID). During its 135th session, which took place from 27–31 January 2025, the WGEID sent an allegation letter to the Israeli government focusing on the “obstacles encountered in the implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance by Israel.” The letter presented the patterns noted above and referred to the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law No. 5762-2002, which introduces the category of “unlawful combatants,” allowing for the indefinite detention of Palestinians without trial. The WGEID also highlighted the obstacles, intimidation, and reprisals faced by lawyers of families and civil society organizations, the systematic obstacles to visiting detainees in Israeli prisons and military camps, and the lack of effective, independent, impartial, and thorough investigations, as well as the failure to identify and return the mortal remains of persons deprived of liberty who die in custody. The WGEID stated that the Israeli government has not yet responded to these allegations.

Enforced disappearance is not only a human rights violation but also an international crime, and can form part of genocidal acts. Although Israel is a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the absolute prohibition on enforced disappearance, as provided in Article 1 of the Convention, is part of customary international law and therefore binding on Israel. Under no circumstances can Israel justify its enforced disappearance policy.

Article 7(1)(i) of the Rome Statute classifies enforced disappearance of persons as a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. Moreover, enforced disappearances can amount to genocide when targeting members of a protected group and carried out with the specific intent to destroy that group. In the context of Gaza, enforced disappearances are part of the genocidal act of causing serious bodily or mental harm, as disappearances inflict immense psychological suffering on victims’ families and communities, as well as the genocidal act of inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group. By carrying out mass disappearances, especially of key figures in society, including journalists, medical workers, academics, and farmers, Israel aims to dismantle the survival of the Palestinian population in Gaza.

In light of the scale and systematic nature of enforced disappearances, PCHR stresses its commitment to continue its documentation of missing Palestinians with the aim of exposing Israel’s genocidal crimes, holding perpetrators accountable and providing Palestinian families with information about the fate and whereabout of their loved ones. PCHR calls on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to prioritize enforced disappearances and torture in its investigation into Israel’s crimes and to include them in forthcoming arrest warrants.Moreover, PCHR reiterates its call on the international community to prevent Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza in line with their moral and legal obligations, including by imposing an immediate arms embargo, and pressure Israeli authorities to immediately disclose the fate of all disappeared Palestinians, allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and lawyers unrestricted access to all detainees, end torture and ill-treatment in Israeli prisons and military camps, and release all those arbitrarily detained.