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+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Over a thousand Palestinians from Gaza held in Israeli detention without charge A controversial law allows Israel to hold Palestinians in prison without charge or trial.

+ World Over a thousand Palestinians from Gaza held in Israeli detention without charge May 30, 20265:08 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Itay Stern Over a thousand Palestinians from Gaza held in Israeli detention without charge Listen &middot; 5:47 5:47 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5831351/nx-s1-9791492" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript A controversial law allows Israel to hold Palestinians in prison without charge or trial. Israel says it's a necessary for security, but rights groups say it leaves detainees in a legal limbo. Sponsor Message ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST: More than 1,000 Palestinians from Gaza are currently being held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial. They are being detained under a measure known as Israel's unlawful combatants law. Israel says the law is necessary for its security, while human rights groups say it creates a legal limbo, one that leaves families without answers and detainees without a clear path forward. Itay Stern brings us this report from Tel Aviv.

+ (CHEERING) ITAY STERN, BYLINE: This is the sound of cheering in Gaza, families welcoming relatives released from Israeli prisons earlier this year. The men look exhausted, some frail, but they smile as they are embraced by the crowd. When Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire last October, Israel released thousands of Palestinians detained in Gaza during the war, but not all of them. Human rights groups estimate that around 1,200 Palestinians from Gaza remain in Israeli custody. Many of them have been classified as unlawful combatants. NADIA DAQQA: (Speaking Hebrew). STERN: "In more than a hundred visits I carried out, I came to realize that in some cases, there were no deep interrogations," says Nadia Daqqa (ph), a lawyer who's represented dozens of detainees. DAQQA: (Speaking Hebrew). STERN: "The sense I was left with was that these people were being held in order to extract information from them whenever it might be later requested," she says. "And on that basis, they are being held with no clear prospect of release. Their detention is not limited in time." Daqqa says, many detainees are not fighters, but civilians, doctors, teachers, journalists and aid workers. Some were detained while fleeing with their families through humanitarian corridors. One of them is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, arrested by the Israeli Army in December 2024. NPR reached his son, Ilyas, by phone. ILYAS ABU SAFIYA: (Speaking Arabic). STERN: "My father," he says, "is like all those in prison now categorized as unlawful combatants, as a pretext to keeping them detained in Israeli prisons without any charge, with their detention extended every six months." He says, the time without his father is affecting every aspect of life. "We are living with grief, shock and constant anxiety at the injustices they are enduring in Israeli prisons. We're not just counting the days. We're counting the fear, the grief, the anxiety and the care." According to U.N. reports, since October 7, 2023, at least 93 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention facilities. Around 65 of them were classified as unlawful combatants. Daqqa says, no Red Cross visits are allowed, and the cause of the deaths remains unclear because she says, in many cases, there is no investigation. DAQQA: (Speaking Hebrew). STERN: But, she says, in other cases of people who died in prison - one of them a minor - it was clear that there was a connection between the policy of starvation and the death. And that's without even getting into the torture, inhumane treatment and humiliation. The Israeli prison service told NPR it denied charges that it operates a policy of torture and starvation. It added that it operates in accordance with the law. Those held as unlawful combatants are not Hamas fighters who crossed into Israel in October 2023, the attack that killed about 1,200 people. They will face trial. By contrast, unlawful combatants face no charges and are held indefinitely, based on secret evidence with judicial review every six months. Israeli human rights lawyer Daniel Shneer says it draws on U.S. policy after the 9/11 attacks. DANIEL SHNEER: It's not a new law. And unfortunately, it is based on an American precedent that was set by the then-Bush administration. STERN: He says the process lacks transparency. SHNEER: The judge sees secret evidence after the first judicial review, and he doesn't give any information away to the detainee. So nobody knows what exactly is the basis of their holding in prison. STERN: Shneer says many detainees are now simply waiting and waiting. SHNEER: This unlucky group of people who are stuck in prison now are just waiting for a further stage, maybe in the negotiation process. STERN: Pnina Sharvit Baruch, a former senior Israeli military prosecutor, says the law addresses armed groups that are not formal militaries. PNINA SHARVIT BARUCH: What it does is it equalizes the ability to hold the members of non-state actors or of organized armed groups and to equalize them to prisoners of war. STERN: She says, criminal trials are often not possible during active fighting because evidence can't be collected, and she argues this kind of detention is permitted under the laws of war. SHARVIT BARUCH: It's also acknowledged given the ICRC, for example, that you can kill - OK? - members of organized armed groups in an armed conflict situation. So if you can kill them, clearly you can detain them instead of killing them. STERN: Those legal arguments offer little comfort for families in Gaza, many of whom still don't know where their relatives are being held or when they might return. Their wait continues. For NPR News, I'm Itay Stern in Tel Aviv. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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