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Israel is holding 2,790 Gazans as detainees on Israeli territory, 660 of them in military detention camps, which have been the sites of severe abuse throughout the Gaza war, according to data revealed by the state following a court petition from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.
The NGO also identified 144 missing detainees in the numbers, whose statuses are unknown. Tal Steiner, the group’s executive director, called on the state to explain what has happened to the missing people and to “immediately change the legislation that violates the fundamental rights of detainees”.
Israel's military has undertaken mass detentions in the strip since the war began in October 2023. Injustice, torture and mistreatment of detainees are cited in South Africa’s continuing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“The disturbing reports of torture in detention facilities and harsh living conditions that have even led to the deaths of many detainees require immediate investigation and fundamental change in the treatment of detainees,” Ms Steiner added.
The state’s response confirmed that the “Anatot” detention facility, where there were numerous accounts of abuse and inhumane conditions, had been closed. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, citing accounts collected by HaMoked Centre for Defence of the Individual, lists examples including people being held in “pens” of 50 people and shackled all day, blindfolded and forbidden to speak.
The data indicates a significant decrease in the number of detentions since December 2024, but the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said the state continues to oppose ending a detention law that “allows prolonged detention without trial and without effective judicial oversight”.
The law in question is Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants Law”, which underwent controversial amendments relating to legal timelines for detainees. PCATI said those changes are a “severe violation of rights to freedom, life, bodily integrity and due process, in a manner incompatible with the values of the State of Israel as a democratic state”.
