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GENEVA, Aug 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - UN rights experts voiced alarm Thursday at 
reports of "enforced disappearances" of starving Palestinians seeking food at 
distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), urging 
Israel to end the "heinous crime".

The seven independent experts said in a joint statement they had received 
reports that a number of individuals, including one child, had been "forcibly 
disappeared" after going to aid distribution sites in Rafah, southern Gaza.

The GHF said there was "no evidence" of enforced disappearances at its aid 
sites.

"Reports of enforced disappearances targeting starving civilians seeking 
their basic right to food is not only shocking, but amounts to torture," said 
the experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not 
speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.

"Using food as a tool to conduct targeted and mass disappearances needs to 
end now."

Israel's military was reportedly "directly involved" in the matter, said the 
statement signed by the five members of the UN Working Group on Enforced or 
Involuntary Disappearances, along with Francesca Albanese, the UN special 
rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories, and her counterpart on 
the right to food, Michael Fakhri.

Israel's military was "refusing to provide information on the fate and 
whereabouts of persons they have deprived of their liberty", in violation of 
international law, the statement said.

"The failure to acknowledge deprivation of liberty by state agents and 
refusal to acknowledge detention constitute an enforced disappearance."

- 'Heinous crime' -

The UN declared a famine in Gaza governorate last week, blaming "systematic 
obstruction" of humanitarian deliveries by Israel.

Israel, which has accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, imposed a 
total blockade on Gaza between March and May.

Once it began easing restrictions, the GHF, a private organisation supported 
by Israel and the United States, was established to distribute food aid, 
effectively sidelining UN agencies.

The experts pointed to how "aerial bombardment and daily gunfire at and 
around the crowded facilities have resulted in mass casualties".

"The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is obligated to provide secure distribution 
sites and has contracted private military security companies to that end," 
they said.

The UN human rights office said last week it had documented that 1,857 
Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid since late May, including 
1,021 near GHF sites.

Now, the experts warned, "the distribution points pose additional risks for 
devastated individuals of being forcibly disappeared".

When asked by AFP about the experts' statement, GHF said: "We operate in a 
war zone where serious allegations exist against all parties operating 
outside our sites. But inside GHF facilities, there is no evidence of 
enforced disappearances."

The experts meanwhile urged Israeli authorities to "put an end to the heinous 
crime against an already vulnerable population".