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euro-mediterranean human rights monitor
3 in 4 Gaza Detainees Held Without Trial by Israel Are Civilians, Military Database Says
Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, said Israel's "unlawful combatants" law "has been used to facilitate the forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people."
Sep 04, 2025
The vast majority of the Palestinians being held in Israel's brutal detention centers are civilians, according to data from a classified Israeli military database.
An investigation published Thursday by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call reveals that of the more than 6,000 so-called "unlawful combatants" detained by Israel during the first 19 months of its military campaign in Gaza, just 1,450 of them were considered by the army to be Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
In its public statements, the Israeli government and media often describe every Palestinian detained or killed in Gaza as a "terrorist." But according to The Guardian:
Those jailed for long periods without charge or trial include medical workers, teachers, civil servants, media workers, writers, sick and disabled people, and children.
Among the most egregious cases are those of an 82-year-old woman with Alzheimer's jailed for six weeks and of a single mother separated from her young children. When the mother was released after 53 days she found the children begging on the streets.
Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law enacted in 2002, allows the military to hold people in detention if they have "reasonable grounds" to believe they participated in "hostile activities against the state of Israel" or are a member of a group that has.
The law allows them to be held for 75 days without access to a lawyer and another 45 days without being brought before a court. After October 7, 2023, those periods of internment were extended to 180 and 75 days, respectively.
Their detention periods are often extended automatically based on "secret evidence" that is not shared with detainees or their lawyers. According to the joint report, "There have been no known trials of anyone captured in Gaza since October 7."
This detention method is described as a way to subvert due process without declaring the detained to be prisoners of war, which entitles them to protection from violence under international law.
"If Israel were to put all [the detainees] on trial, they'd have to draft indictments on specific charges and present evidence of those allegations," Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, told +972. "Due process can be cumbersome. That's why they created the Unlawful Combatants Law, to bypass all of that."
Montell said that the law "has been used to facilitate the forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people."
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shortly after the war kicked off, Israel began the "rushed transformation of more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy."
Testimonies from dozens of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank who were arbitrarily detained revealed in August 2024 that the prisoners "were subjected to harsh arbitrary violence on a frequent basis, sexual assault, humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation, forced lack of hygiene, sleep deprivation, restriction and punishment of religious worship, confiscation of all group and personal belongings, and denial of adequate medical care."
Those who have been released from detention often come back in horrendous health, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor found out when it documented the conditions of the roughly 2,000 detainees released during January's brief ceasefire period between Israel and Hamas. A report released by the group in February stated that:
The majority appeared to be in a serious state of decline, with each of them losing several kilograms of weight due to what appears to be intentional starvation.
Following their release, many of the inmates and detainees required immediate hospital transfers for critical medical examinations. One in particular seemed incapable of recognizing his future after being denied treatment while in custody.
These circumstances demonstrate how Israel has transformed its jails into institutionalized torture facilities for Palestinian detainees and prisoners, including those who were convicted and imprisoned prior to October 7, 2023.
Until the final moments before their release, most of the detainees endured psychological torture in addition to mistreatment and beatings.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office, 77 Palestinians have died while in Israeli detention since the start of the war.
HaMoked says Israel is currently detaining more than 11,000 Palestinians as "security" inmates, including 2,662 people designated as "unlawful combatants"—the most since the designation was created. They are also holding 3,577 people in administrative detention, which allows people to be held without charge on the grounds that they may have broken the law in the future.
At least 360 children ages 12-17 are currently being held in Israeli detention, according to the latest figures from the Israel Prison Service released on June 30.
"These children are languishing in overcrowded Israeli prisons, fed rotten food, and beaten on a daily basis by Israeli guards, all while they are completely isolated from the outside world, including from their families and lawyers," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at the Defense for Children International-Palestine.
A record number of these children, 147 of them, are being held under administrative detention without charge or trial.
The investigation by The Guardian, +972, and Local Call comes two weeks after the three outlets published a report on classified Israel Defense Forces data that showed 5 in 6 Palestinians killed in the first 19 months of the war were civilians, despite persistent claims by Israel and its Western allies that the military is targeting Hamas.
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'Colossal Level of Destruction' as Israel Ethnically Cleanses Gaza City Neighborhoods
"The widespread destruction in Zeitoun," said one group, "is part of a deliberate Israeli policy: completing a campaign of genocide and erasing Palestinian urban life."
Aug 19, 2025
Israeli forces continued bombing, shelling, and shooting civilians and systematically demolishing homes in Gaza City Tuesday as part of a US-backed plan to ethnically cleanse 1 million Palestinians from large parts of the embattled enclave so that Israel can reoccupy the coastal strip.
For more than a week, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombing and shelling have pounded areas including the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City, destroying hundreds of homes and also targeting displacement shelters in a bid to force Palestinians to flee to southern parts of the coastal enclave.
According to Al Jazeera, there are approximately 11 displacement centers in Zeitoun, each housing 4,000-4,500 Palestinians, as much of Gaza City's largest neighborhood had already been bombed and razed to the ground in order to create the Netzarim Corridor and "buffer zone."
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told the Egyptian news site Mada Masr that the IDF is deliberately bombing inhabited apartment towers, wiping out large portions of extended families.
Heavy Israeli air strikes have hit a home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, where shrapnel from another attack wounded a child. Israel’s military is intensifying its bombardment following its plan to take over Gaza City and forcibly displace Palestinians south.
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— Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) August 17, 2025 at 2:15 AM
On Tuesday, an IDF strike on the Hosary family home reportedly killed at least 28 people. Although many victims remain trapped in the rubble, rescuing them is impossible, according to Civil Defense officials, as Israeli forces are targeting people who attempt to do so.
"We are terrified because most of the airstrikes on homes came without warning," Zeitoun resident Shady Mohamed told Mada Masr. "The bombardment is everywhere around us."
In addition to massive bombs and artillery shells—many of them supplied by the United States—the IDF is using snipers and quadcopter drones armed with machine guns and explosives to target and forcibly expel Palestinian civilians from Zeitoun and other areas.
"The situation was terrifying," Zeitoun resident Sahar L. told Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor after fleeing. "I clutched my daughter as we walked over shattered glass and rubble, surrounded by smoke, flames, and explosions everywhere. I ran without knowing where to go. God help us. Enough, world, enough."
"... the military levelling buildings in controlled demolitions in multiple parts of Gaza city.. Israel destroyed 450 buildings in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza city in the last 9 days alone. That's almost 50 buildings destroyed every day. Its a colossal level of destruction"
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— Saul Staniforth (@saulstaniforth.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 6:11 AM
The tactic isn't new—in 1948, Jewish militias used massacres and the threat thereof to terrorize Arabs into fleeing Palestine as it was conquered by the nascent state of Israel during what Palestinians call the Nakba, or "catastrophe."
Current-day Israeli political and military leaders have called for a new Nakba, including former Gen. IDF Aharon Haliva, who recently said that for every Israeli killed during the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, "50 Palestinians must die," and it doesn't matter "if they're children."
Amid relentless IDF attacks, residents of northern and central Gaza are being pushed southward into the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people are being confined in an 11-square-mile area.
Among the dozens of Palestinians reportedly killed across Gaza within the past 24 hours are at least five people—including two children—who died of malnutrition amid what Amnesty International on Monday called a "deliberate campaign" of weaponized starvation caused largely by Israel's blockade on food, medicine, and other vital supplies. At least 266 Palestinians, including 122 children, have starved to death in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
IDF tanks and armored vehicles have faced sustained resistance as they attempt to achieve the objectives of Operation Gideon's Chariots, a US-backed plan to conquer and indefinitely occupy Gaza, ethnically cleanse its Palestinian residents, and open the strip for possible Israeli resettlement. US President Donald Trump has said that he wants to transform Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza City has prompted renewed calls for international action.
"The widespread destruction in Zeitoun... is part of a deliberate Israeli policy: completing a campaign of genocide and erasing Palestinian urban life through the total destruction of homes, infrastructure, and access to basic livelihoods," Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Sunday.
"The international community, including the United Nations and global legal bodies, must intervene urgently to halt the massacres, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for these heinous crimes against the civilian population," the Geneva-based group added.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague—which is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel—has issued three provisional orders since January 2024 for Israel to prevent genocidal acts, allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and stop attacking Rafah. Israel has been accused of ignoring or violating all three orders.
The other Hague-based international tribunal, the International Criminal Court (ICC), last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered the "complete siege" on Gaza—for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder and forced starvation.
Israel's 683-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 62,064 Palestinians dead, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Experts say the actual death toll is probably much higher, as thousands of people are missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble. More than 156,500 Palestinians have also been wounded in Gaza.
Under tremendous domestic and international pressure, Israel said Tuesday that it would respond by Friday to a new ceasefire proposal approved by Hamas under which around half of the 20 remaining living Israeli and other hostages and bodies of some who were killed on October 7 or after would be released in a phased exchange deal. In return, approximately 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons would be freed.
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'Evidence of Genocidal Intent': Israeli General Calls for Killing 50 Palestinians for Every Oct. 7 Victim
Aharon Haliva, the former head of military intelligence in Israel, said in his vengeful remarks that it "doesn't matter now if they are children."
Aug 18, 2025
Those who listened to the 22-minute speech given by a South African attorney as part of the country's genocide case against Israel at the United Nations' top court in January 2024 have long been well aware that Israeli officials have openly made genocidal statements about their military assault on Gaza—but a recording broadcast by an Israeli news channel on Sunday revealed what The Guardian called an "unusually direct description of collective punishment of civilians" by a high-level general.
Aharon Haliva, the general who led Israel's military intelligence operations on October 7, 2023 when Hamas led an attack on the country, was heard in a recording broadcast by Channel 12 that "for everything that happened on October 7, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die."
"The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations," said Haliva in comments that were made "in recent months," according to Channel 12. "It doesn't matter now if they are children."
More than 62,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's airstrikes and ground assault on Gaza since October 7, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, with more than 250 people having died of malnutrition due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid. The official death toll figures put out by officials in Gaza is believed by many to be a severe undercount.
The Israel Defense Forces' own data recently showed that only about 20,000 militants are among those who have been killed by Israeli forces—even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and both Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States, the top international funder of the IDF, continue to insist that the military is targeting Hamas.
Haliva, who stepped down from leading military intelligence in April 2024, added in his comments that Palestinians "need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price"—a reference to the forced displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, the killing of about 15,000 people, and the destruction of more than 500 Palestinian towns when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Notably, The Guardian reported that Haliva is "widely seen as a centrist critic of the current government and its far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir," whose genocidal statements about Gaza and the West Bank have been widely reported.
When arguing South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice in January 2024, attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi catalogued a number of statements made by Netanyahu, the IDF, and his top Israeli ministers, including:
- A call from Netanyahu for Israelis to "remember what Amalek has done to you," a reference to God's command that the Israelites massacre their ancient enemy, the Amalekites, in the Old Testament;
- A demand from Knesset Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi that the IDF "burn Gaza" to the ground, and a statement from him that "the people of Gaza cannot be described as animals because animals are better than humans"; and
- A chant made by Israeli soldiers, who had been told early in the war to "release all restraints" as they bombarded Gaza, that there are "no uninvolved civilians" in the enclave.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which said last month that it had determined Netanyahu's government is committing genocide in Gaza, said Haliva's remarks "are part of a long line of official statements that expose a deliberate policy of genocide."
"For 22 months, Israel has pursued a policy of systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza," said B'Tselem. "This is genocide. It is happening now. It must be stopped."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added that Haliva openly admitted "what Israel tries to deny: genocide is not a byproduct of war but the goal."
Haliva's remark about the necessity of repeating the Nakba in Gaza "reveals a clear intention: The bloodshed is not meant to stop, but to be repeated."
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Haliva's statement "is not just evidence of genocidal rhetoric, it is a blueprint for genocidal action" that must push the US government to end its support for Israel.
"The Trump administration and the international community can no longer turn a blind eye," said Awad. "President [Donald] Trump and Congress cannot continue to claim they do not know or deny what the entire world is seeing every hour of every day. The United States must immediately halt all military aid and support to Israel and demand accountability for war crimes committed in Gaza. Silence is complicity."
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