العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On April 29, 2025, HaMoked wrote to the Military Advocate General (MAG) to reconsider Israel’s policy of releasing from detention to the Gaza Strip Palestinians whose official address is in Gaza, especially in the case of those who were arrested as illegal aliens in the West Bank or Israel after a long stay in either.
HaMoked noted that since the outbreak of the October 2023 war, alongside mass arrests in the Gaza Strip, Israel has arrested in the West Bank and in Israel thousands of Palestinians registered as Gaza residents. Such Palestinians have been released by Israel to Gaza rather than to the West Bank, regardless of the fact that many of them had legally stayed in Israel beforehand pursuant to long-term work permits, or had been living for years in the West Bank without being able to update their registered address due to Israel’s longstanding refusal to accept changes of address in the PA population registry.
HaMoked clarified that Israel’s policy of release from custody according to the registered address was incommensurate with the principle of non-refoulement, which Israel was obligated to uphold under Israeli law and international law alike. This important principle affords temporary protection from deportation or removal to a place where a person’s life or freedom would be threatened, regardless of whether they are refugees or not. HaMoked stressed that under the current conditions in Gaza – an acute humanitarian crisis, the continued war and the resultant daily imminent threat to life there – Israel must grant temporary protection to all those detained from Israel or the West Bank; thus according to the rules outlined by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regarding situations where temporary exceptional circumstance in the country of origin warrant international protection and preclude the return of a person to their country as their life or freedom would be threatened there.
