After 8 Months of “Burial” .. Family Devastated by Daughter Held Prisoner in Occupation Jails

After nearly eight months of pain, loss, and mourning, the family of young Palestinian Bisan Fadel Muhammad Fayyad, who was detained by the occupation, received a new shock that reopened wounds and exposed one of the most brutal and painful cases of enforced disappearance.

The family had bid farewell to Bisan as a “martyr” after receiving on January 7, 2024, a body said to be hers, which they buried amid the pain of loss and the belief that she had died during detention. But the surprise that overturned the situation came months later, when it was revealed that Bisan is still alive, held in the occupation’s prisons, and that the body delivered was not hers. She is currently suffering from a serious spinal injury that caused paralysis on one side, under difficult health conditions.

This incident, as confirmed by the Palestinian Center for Enforced Disappearances and Missing Persons in a statement, represents a blatant example of the policy of enforced disappearance practiced by the occupation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its ongoing military aggression more than 22 months ago. Families are deprived of their basic rights to know the fate of their loved ones and pushed to mourn over bodies that may not be their children at all, amid deliberate manipulation of corpses and documents by occupation authorities.

The center demanded immediate pressure to fully reveal the fate of detainee Bisan Fayyad, provide her with appropriate medical treatment, and hold the occupation accountable for the double crime committed against her and her family. It indicated that the case is not exclusive to Bisan but is part of a continuing pattern of violations targeting hundreds of forcibly disappeared Palestinians, with no information about their detention locations, health conditions, or whether they are still alive.

The statement emphasized that the occupation continues to use the crime of enforced disappearance as a tool to terrorize Palestinians and their families, and that Bisan’s case reveals the brutality of this policy, demanding the immediate disclosure of the identity of the woman whose body was handed to the Fayyad family and mistakenly buried as Bisan.

The center called on the international community, human rights organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the committee on enforced disappearances to take urgent action to uncover the fate of all those forcibly disappeared in the occupation’s prisons, ensure their contact with their families, provide them with healthcare, and end this ongoing crime against them.