Vast majority of Gazans detained by Israeli military are civilians, investigation finds

Civilians imprisoned under 'unlawful combatants' laws include children and elderly woman with Alzheimer's

Palestinians returning to Gaza after being detained by Israel await medical examination at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah on April 10, 2025. Anadolu

The Israeli military identifies only a quarter of the Gazan detainees it holds as combatants, according to an investigation based on classified Israeli military data.

The investigation's findings, published on Thursday by British newspaper The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian online outlet +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language news website Local Call, show that the majority of detainees are civilians held without charge or proper legal process, including Palestinian children as well as the sick and disabled.

The report is the latest indictment of Israel's detention of Palestinians from Gaza since it launched a military offensive in the enclave in October 2023. Rights groups have said conditions at the military's detention centres are degrading.

The investigation highlights the cases of an 82-year-old woman with Alzheimer's who was imprisoned for six weeks, and a single mother who was separated from her children and found them begging on the streets when she was freed.

Demonstrators broke into the Sde Teiman detention centre after military police entered to arrest soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian inmate. Reuters

The database shows that as of May this year, only 1,450 of the nearly 6,000 Gazans being held under “unlawful combatants” laws that permit imprisonment without charge, have been identified as fighters.

The Israeli military rejected the investigation, saying it was based on “numerous inaccuracies” and a “misunderstanding of the detention procedures in Israel”.

The degrading detention of Palestinians has been a concern throughout the Gaza war. Last year, The National spoke to an Israeli physician who worked at the Sde Teiman detention centre, who said they felt “complicit in war crimes” after visiting a field hospital at the centre.

They said that every detainee had “each arm and leg handcuffed to the sides of the bed”. All of them were blindfolded, and “all the patients I interacted with were naked besides a diaper and a fleece blanket for little warmth. Besides that, they were completely exposed”, said the physician, who is one of many whistle-blowers.

The UN has documented cases of Palestinians being beaten, attacked by dogs and sexually assaulted in detention centres where the vast majority of inmates are not designated as combatants.