The Guardian: Israeli intel shows just 25% of Gaza prisoners are combatants PHOTO

Only one in four Palestinians from Gaza held in Israeli detention are classified as fighters, according to Israel’s own military intelligence, highlighting the widespread imprisonment of civilians under the country’s “unlawful combatants” legislation.

Classified data obtained by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call reveal that of the 6,000 Palestinians detained since October 7, 2023, just 1,450 were identified in Israel’s database of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members. 

Those held without charge or trial include medical workers, teachers, civil servants, media personnel, writers, children, and elderly or disabled individuals.

Among the most extreme cases is an 82-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s, jailed for six weeks and a single mother separated from her young children, who were left begging on the streets after her release. One soldier at the Sde Teiman military base described a separate hangar for sick, disabled, and elderly detainees, calling it “the geriatric pen.”

Israeli military intelligence maintains a database of over 47,000 named individuals classified as militants, based on captured Hamas files and other intelligence. In May 2025, the database listed 1,450 “arrested” individuals, equivalent to roughly one in four of all Palestinians detained from Gaza.

Rights groups and Israeli soldiers suggest the civilian proportion may be even higher. Samir Zaqout, deputy director of the Gaza-based Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, said: “At most, perhaps one in six or seven might have any link to Hamas or other militant factions, and even then, not necessarily through their military wings.”

The Israeli military has returned over 2,000 civilians to Gaza after finding no links to militant activity. “Israel is fighting enemies who disguise themselves as civilians, but those releases demonstrate a thorough review process,” the military said, without disputing the database figures.

The law governing “unlawful combatants” allows indefinite detention without trial. Individuals can be held for 75 days before seeing a lawyer and 45 days before appearing before a judge; at the start of the war, these periods were extended to 180 and 75 days, respectively. No known trials have been conducted for detainees captured since October 7, 2023.

Cases like that of Fahamiya al-Khalidi, the elderly woman with Alzheimer’s, have drawn attention. A military medic recalled treating her at Anatot detention centre: “I remember her limping badly toward the clinic. And she’s classified as an unlawful combatant. The way that label is used is insane.”

Other detainees include a breastfeeding mother separated from her baby and a woman, Abeer Ghaban, held for six weeks due to mistaken identity. She recalled: “I realised in interrogation that officers had confused my husband, a farmer, with a Hamas member of the same name. One conceded his error after comparing photographs, but I was kept in jail for six more weeks.”

Rights groups argue that mass detentions serve as bargaining tools in the conflict. A spokesperson for Al Mezan said: “We believe the thousands of civilians from Gaza now in detention are likewise intended to be used as bargaining chips.”

Jessica Montell, director of HaMoked, added: “The unlawful combatants legislation has been used to facilitate the forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people.”

By August 2025, Israel’s prison service held a record 2,662 unlawful combatants, with additional detainees in military facilities. One Israeli officer involved in mass arrests noted: “We saw no difference between a terrorist who entered Israel on October 7 and someone working for the water authority in Khan Younis.”

The data underscores the high civilian cost of Israel’s detention policies in Gaza, raising human rights concerns and questions over the legality and proportionality of mass imprisonment without trial.

By Aghakazim Guliyev