Without Status or Protection

This report concerns twenty-one Lebanese imprisoned in Israel and the conditions and indefinite prolongation of their detention. These detainees have been held for up to ten years, some of them in secret locations, denied even the guarantees of due process and humane treatment required by the laws of war. Some of them "disappeared" after their transfer to secret detention in Israel, their custody denied for up to two years by Israeli officials. All of the detainees were initially held incommunicado, in conditions in which ill-treatment and torture by Israeli security forces is known routinely to occur. Two of the detainees continue to be held in utter secrecy and isolation in undisclosed locations; one of them has been in this situation since 1989. Others among these prisoners completed prison sentences in Israel up to nine years ago: orders for their deportation upon release were suspended without explanation and their long imprisonment under administrative orders began. All of the twenty-one were captured inside Lebanon by Israeli troops or Lebanese militia with close ties to Israel, such as the Lebanese Forces and the South Lebanon Army SLA).