Amnesty calls for investigating ‘enforced disappearance’ of Gaza detainees

Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an urgent and immediate investigation into Israel’s “enforced disappearance” of Palestinian detainees from Gaza.

The call comes after reports of deaths in military detention centres.

According to Amnesty, hundreds of Palestinian civilians are held in detention centres south of Israel, and they were all taken hostages during military operations across Gaza.

“The Israeli military must urgently disclose the fate and whereabouts of everyone that it has detained since 7 October,” Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

“Israeli forces must specify the grounds of arrest for those detained and make every effort to provide families of those in its custody with information, particularly in light of the telecommunications blackouts that have cut off Gazans.”

The non-governmental organisation also demanded an investigation into the “inhumane treatment and enforced disappearance” of these civilians.

The Israeli occupation forces said on Tuesday it was investigating the deaths of Palestinian detainees taken hostages in Gaza.

The terrorist state did not give any details about how many civilians died or about the circumstances of their deaths.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that “several of them have died” in Israeli detention facilities.

The civilians died at the Sde Teiman base near the city occupied city of Beersheva, formerly named Beer Al Sabe.

Haaretz also said that those detained are held at this facility and are “blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day.”

Israeli television last week showed a number of stripped Palestinian men sitting in a street in Gaza.