By Tendai Chisiri
HARARE – The State of Palestine has condemned what it called the Israeli occupation authorities’ “systematic use of enforced disappearance” against thousands of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war.
In a statement marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tamer Almassri, said the fate and whereabouts of many detainees “remain entirely unknown.”
“Withholding information, refusing to disclose names, locations, and medical conditions, and denying access to families, legal counsel, and human rights organizations are not isolated violations,” Almassri said.
He added that these practices form “an integrated policy designed to strip detainees of all legal protection,” creating conditions for “torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect entirely shielded from oversight and accountability.”
Violation of International Law
Almassri stressed that under international law, enforced disappearance is “absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances, including during war or state of emergency.”
Citing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, he defined it as the deprivation of liberty combined with a refusal to acknowledge the detention or conceal the victim’s fate, “placing them outside the protection of the law.”
“Ending enforced disappearance and determining the fate of the detainees is not a humanitarian demand that can be deferred, but a genuine test of the international community’s commitment to upholding international law and to halting the ongoing course of genocide,” the Ambassador said.
Gaza Casualties Mount
The statement comes as the death toll from Israel’s ongoing aggression in the Gaza Strip has risen to 73,454 Palestinians killed and 174,486 injured since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.
Almassri noted that more than 12,000 people remain trapped beneath the rubble and along roads, with ambulance and rescue crews unable to reach them amid continued bombing, “despite the so-called ceasefire.”
He also condemned Israeli politicians for “leveraging military escalation and the loss of Palestinian lives for domestic electoral gains” ahead of upcoming elections.
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is observed annually on 30 August to draw attention to the crime and demand truth and justice for victims and their families.
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