Up to 3,000 Palestinians forcibly disappeared during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza

A Palestinian rights organization says between 2,500 and 3,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged territory.

The Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons released the estimate on Saturday, a day before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, following an analysis of 317 documented cases.

The center cautioned that the estimate should not be viewed as a comprehensive count, as its study was based on information provided by families of missing people and cases documented by field teams.

Men accounted for the overwhelming majority of the cases examined, with 302, or 95.27 percent, involving males and 15 involving females. The sample also included 41 children and 17 people aged 60 and above.

Gaza City had the highest number of documented cases, with 89, followed by northern Gaza with 74. Khan Younis accounted for 59 cases, central Gaza for 37 and Rafah for 32.

The circumstances surrounding the disappearances varied. The center said 76 people went missing during Israeli military raids on homes or the siege of residential areas, while another 60 disappeared while trying to return home or collect essential belongings.

Forty-two cases occurred during displacement or while people were crossing Israeli military checkpoints. Another 39 involved people who disappeared while seeking food or waiting to receive humanitarian aid.

According to the organization, 22 cases were connected to the regime’s siege of the coastal strip or storming of medical facilities, as well as the transfer of patients, while 10 involved journalists or others carrying out field work.

The center separately estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 people are missing and presumed to be beneath the rubble of buildings destroyed during the war.

These cases, it said, are distinct from cases of enforced disappearance.

In April, the Palestinian Justice Ministry reported that more than 11,200 Palestinians had been listed as missing or forcibly disappeared since October 2023. More than 4,700 of those were women and children.

Civil Defense crews recover bodies of 233 Palestinians from rubble of destroyed Gaza buildings

Gaza Civil Defense teams have recovered the remains of 233 Palestinians from beneath the rubble of more than a dozen homes destroyed by Israeli attacks.

Under the UN definition, enforced disappearance occurs when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by state authorities, or by actors operating with their authorization, support or acquiescence, and authorities subsequently refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or provide information about the person’s fate or whereabouts.

The Palestinian center called for the fate of all missing people to be established and for the International Committee of the Red Cross to be granted access to detainees.

It also demanded the creation of an independent international mechanism to investigate suspected enforced disappearances and ensure accountability for those responsible.

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 73,000, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian officials.

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