Online Reporter
Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
PALESTINIAN Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri has condemned the enforced disappearance of thousands of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip and urged the international community to ensure their whereabouts and fate are established.
In a statement marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Ambassador Almassri accused Israeli authorities of systematically withholding information on detainees taken during the ongoing conflict.
“The Israeli occupation authorities’ systematic use of enforced disappearance against thousands of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip during the ongoing genocidal war was a major concern,” he said.
“The fate and whereabouts of many of these individuals remain entirely unknown.”
Ambassador Almassri said the refusal to disclose detainees’ names, locations and medical conditions, as well as denying access to families, lawyers and human rights organisations amounted to more than isolated violations.
“Rather, these practices form an integrated policy designed to strip detainees of all legal protection,” he said.
“This deliberate concealment fosters an environment conducive to torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect entirely shielded from oversight and accountability.”
He said international law prohibited enforced disappearance under all circumstances, including during war or a state of emergency.
Ambassador Almassri said the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defined the practice as deprivation of liberty combined with refusal to acknowledge detention or concealment of a victim’s fate, leaving the person outside the protection of the law.
He said determining the fate of missing detainees should not be postponed.
“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,” Ambassador Almassri said.
He also cited Palestinian casualty figures and said 73 454 Palestinians have been killed and 174 486 injured since the conflict began in October 2023.
More than 12 000 people, he said, remained trapped under rubble and along roads while ambulance and rescue teams continued to face difficulties reaching them amid ongoing Israeli bombardment.
Ambassador Almassri accused Israeli politicians of using the conflict for domestic political gains ahead of elections.
He condemned the leveraging of military escalation and the loss of Palestinian lives for domestic electoral gains.
