Leaked documents have exposed that three-quarters of Palestinians taken from Gaza since October 2023 are civilians with no political affiliation, yet have been branded “unlawful combatants” by Israeli forces. According to a joint investigation by The Guardian and the Hebrew outlet Sicha Mekomit, nearly 6,000 Palestinians have been detained under Israel’s 2002 “Unlawful Combatants Law,” which allows indefinite imprisonment without trial and based on secret intelligence.

The records show that only about 1,450 detainees are linked to armed groups, while the remaining 4,550 are civilians, among them doctors, patients, women, and elderly people. Disturbing cases include that of 82-year-old Fahima al-Khaldi, an Alzheimer’s patient held for six weeks before her arrest was dismissed as “inappropriate,” and Abeer Ghabbain, a mother of three detained due to mistaken identity, who returned home to find her children begging in the streets.

Conditions inside the camps are described as degrading, with separate sections for the elderly and disabled. Even senior Israeli officers acknowledge that up to 90% of detainees are civilians. Rights groups warn that these mass arrests are being used as bargaining chips in future prisoner exchanges, in violation of basic human rights and international law.

Today, more than 2,600 Palestinians remain imprisoned under this law, enduring hunger, denial of legal visits, and endless detention without hearings. Human rights organisations say this amounts to collective punishment, reflecting the wider assault on Palestinian civilians.