Nine teenage Gazans go missing near aid centers; IDF confirms arrest of five

A child carries a food package in the Gaza Strip, June 2025

Nir Hasson reports in Haaretz on 16 July 2025:

Five teenage boys from Gaza, aged 15 to 17, who went missing in recent weeks after seeking food at distribution centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, were detained by the Israeli army, according to the IDF’s response to inquiries from HaMoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual filed on behalf of the boys’ families.

The fate of four other teenage boys from Gaza who also visited the food distribution centers and subsequently disappeared remains unknown.

According to information received by HaMoked, four of the five detained boys, all aged 15 to 16, have been issued orders barring them from meeting with an attorney for approximately six weeks. The fifth detainee, a 17-year-old, is being held at Shikma Prison and is exempt from this restriction.

The youngest of the missing, a 14-year-old boy named Ahmad, disappeared on June 21. According to his father, Ahmad had gone with his cousin to a food distribution site and has not been seen since. The family searched the area and later discovered the cousin’s body.

Witnesses told the family that soldiers detained Ahmad after he was wounded, but HaMoked has been unable to obtain any information from the IDF about his fate. “We have no indication of his arrest or detention,” the IDF said in response to Haaretz’s inquiry.

Similarly, regarding another missing boy, 16-year-old Khaled, who vanished three days after Ahmad, the IDF stated there was “no indication” of his arrest.

In addition to its inquiries to the IDF, HaMoked has filed a petition with Israel’s High Court of Justice on behalf of a 16-year-old who was arrested on June 29 along with 17 others while en route to a humanitarian aid center in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Eight of the detainees were released the same day, but the minor and nine others remain in custody. The IDF has acknowledged holding the boy but has refused to disclose his location.

“The petitioner’s family is in severe distress following his arrest, having received no information about the circumstances of the arrest or his transfer destination,” the petition says. “Their anguish is compounded by the fact that the detainee is a minor who was trying to reach a food distribution point to obtain food for himself and his family, who are suffering from hunger.”

According to the petition, “the minor’s family also received testimonies from several detainees who were arrested with him and released the same day, indicating that the arrest was violent and that soldiers assaulted all of the detainees. Additionally, there are accounts from other Palestinians released from Israeli detention facilities describing particularly harsh conditions for detainees from Gaza, amounting to severe violations of their rights and raising serious concerns about acts of torture.”

Supreme Court Justice Yael Ronen has given the state ten days to respond to the petition.

The disappearance of the minors unfolds amid numerous deaths around the distribution centers. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, at least 698 Palestinians have been killed on or near the four GHF distribution centers since their opening, most due to dispersal fire by Israeli soldiers.

“Every week, dozens of Gaza families contact HaMoked, reporting missing relatives, including children, who vanished amid the chaotic queues at the aid distribution centers,” says Jessica Montell, the organization’s director.

“Recently, we were shocked when the army refused to disclose the whereabouts of children because they were subject to so-called attorney visit bans,” she added. “On what grounds should a 15-, 16- or even 17-year-old be denied access to a lawyer? These children, held in detention and cut off from the world, are in better condition than those still missing, who are likely no longer alive. Humanitarian aid must never come at the risk of detention or death.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit responded that the army operates “to facilitate the distribution of aid by [GHF] and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, ensuring that the aid reaches Gazans and not Hamas.”  It added that the army does not operate inside the distribution centers themselves.

“As part of the IDF’s activities, suspects who approach the distribution centers during closed hours and come near the forces in a manner that endangers them are arrested and brought in for further investigation,” the statement said. “If preliminary investigations on site raise suspicion against a detainee… the suspect is transferred for further interrogation in Israel.”

“The fact that minors are involved is taken into account, and they are treated with the required sensitivity and following the law, including meetings with attorneys under the conditions set forth by law, contrary to the claims made,” it added.

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