Gaza – The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared (PCMFD) stated that the Israeli army’s detention of Palestinian academic Mahmoud Al-Najjar while he was attempting to travel, and his subsequent transfer to an unknown location without notifying his family or any official bodies, represents a new chapter in the systematic chain of arbitrary detention and subsequent enforced disappearance targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
PCMFD explained that Dr. Mahmoud Al-Najjar is an academic specializing in Administrative Sciences. He had recently secured an academic scholarship and was en route to the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy to commence his academic program, after finally obtaining a travel permit and official approvals following months of exhaustive attempts and complex departure procedures.
In a statement issued today, PCMFD confirmed that it received an official testimony from Al-Najjar’s family, who expressed profound concern for his life. The family noted that they possess no information regarding his fate or place of detention up to this moment, and have received no official notification from the Israeli authorities concerning his arrest.
Dr. Al-Najjar’s family further disclosed to PCMFD that they initially learned of his arrest and abduction through social media platforms, via testimonies shared by fellow academics and students who were traveling alongside him on the same journey.
The family added that their anxieties escalated following verified reports that the Israeli authorities later released a group of students who had been detained at the same time, while maintaining the detention of Dr. Al-Najjar and continuing to conceal his fate.
PCMFD points out that the gravity of this crime is compounded by the severe humanitarian and psychological distress Dr. Mahmoud Al-Najjar is enduring. He is the sole survivor of his immediate family after losing his wife and all of his children in a bombardment that targeted their home in Jabalia in 2024. He was desperately attempting to travel to rebuild his professional and academic life, which had been decimated by the ongoing war.
During their briefing with PCMFD, his family stressed that Al-Najjar is an independent academic who has dedicated his life to education and scientific research, with no affiliation to any political or military factions. This further underscores Israel’s systematic use of enforced disappearance against civilians in Gaza.
The Palestinian Center for the Missing (PCMFD) warned of the critical dangers posed by the Israeli occupation’s transformation of travel crossings and transit routes into “detention traps” and hubs for terrorizing civilians and executing enforced disappearances.
PCMFD underscores that exploiting the essential need of citizens and professionals to travel and move, with the intent of entrapping and detaining them without any legal basis, constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law—specifically the rights to freedom of movement and personal security.
The Center further notes that the Israeli occupation authorities have deployed the crime of enforced disappearance throughout the war on the Gaza Strip as a systematic political and military tool, serving as a form of collective punishment aimed at terrorizing civilians and fracturing their social fabric.
PCMFD reveals that at least 1,500 individuals are suspected of having been subjected to enforced disappearance by Israeli forces since the beginning of the military aggression. Their fates remain entirely unknown, as Israel consistently refuses to disclose any information regarding them to either their families or human rights organizations.
Accordingly, PCMFD demands that the Israeli occupation authorities immediately and fully disclose the fate of academic Dr. Mahmoud Al-Najjar, reveal his place of detention, and grant his immediate and unconditional release.
PCMFD calls upon the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), relevant UN mechanisms—foremost among them the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances—alongside the international academic community and unions, to take urgent action. They must pressure the Israeli authorities to allow legal and humanitarian teams access to visit him, ensure his safety, and halt the ongoing policy of targeting and forcibly disappearing Palestinian minds and educational cadres.
