Israel war on Gaza updates: ‘Another day, another school hit’

Addameer says that with the launch of Israel’s ground offensive, the organisation received reports of large numbers of civilians in Gaza, some nearly naked, crowded together in army vehicles and taken to an unknown destination.

The Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah said it received reports from the north of Gaza of mass detentions, ill-treatment, and forced disappearance of possibly thousands of Palestinians, including children, at the hands of Israeli forces.

Israeli authorities can detain Palestinian residents of Gaza under a law that does not guarantee the right to meaningful judicial review and violates due process rights, it said.

“The Unlawful Combatant Law, enacted by the Knesset in 2002, permits the Chief of General Staff of the Israeli forces to incarcerate a person based on ‘reasonable cause’ that ‘he is an unlawful combatant and that his release will harm national security’,” Addammeer said, adding that this “unlawful combatant” designation is not recognised under international law.

Several rights groups, including Israeli ones, have petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to have authorities disclose the whereabouts of hundreds of Gaza residents taken. But so far, Addameer said, they’ve only managed to get some information on “a limited number of detainees without [authorities] disclosing the legal grounds for their detention”.