Introduction
The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime on 8 December 2024 has led to profound political, security and military changes in Syria, accompanied by developments on the ground in the south of the country. These included the occupation of the buffer zone pursuant to the 1974 ceasefire agreement by Israeli forces, as well as adjacent areas. Amid these developments, and as part of numerous violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the newly occupied areas, tens of Syrian citizens were detained in different circumstances and locations, and were transferred to detention facilities and prisons inside Israel.
Starting at the first months of these arrests, Al-Marsad – Arab Human Rights Center in the Golan began monitoring this issue by following Syrian and Israeli media, communicating with human-rights and media activists in Quneitra Governorate, and submitting a request under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act of 1998 to determine the number of detainees.
At a later stage, through communication with Palestinian lawyer colleagues who had become aware of Syrian detainees in Israeli prisons while visiting their Palestinian clients, Al-Marsad began receiving approaches from detainees’ families, obtaining appropriate powers of attorney from them, providing legal consultations, contacting the Israeli authorities to establish the places of detention, submitting requests to visit detainees, and following up on their legal and humanitarian situation.
As of the preparation of this report, Al-Marsad has followed dozens of cases of arrest and provided legal assistance to more than 12 families, amid repeated difficulties faced by families and lawyers in obtaining information or accessing detainees.
This report is based on the field and legal experience accumulated by Al-Marsad over more than 18 months of monitoring, and on information and documents collected from families, official correspondence, and legal proceedings undertaken by Al-Marsad concerning the situation of detainees. The report does not claim to provide a comprehensive picture of all arrests; rather, it focuses on patterns that Al-Marsad was able to document directly through its work, while maintaining a distinction between documented facts and the legal analysis based on them.
The report seeks to document the principal problems observed in the treatment of Syrian detainees, including the difficulty of establishing places of detention, restrictions on communication with families, obstacles limiting lawyers’ access to detainees, and the compatibility of these practices with Israel’s obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law, according to the legal framework applicable to each case.
The report does not address the reasons for the arrest of individuals or their responsibility for any alleged acts, nor does it seek to assess the security considerations that may be invoked by the Israeli authorities in carrying out arrests. Its scope is limited to examining respect for the legal safeguards and fundamental rights enjoyed by all persons deprived of their liberty, including the right to due process, the right to be aware of the reasons for detention, access to counsel, fair legal proceedings, communication with family, and humane treatment. These rights are not diminished by the nature of the allegations or security circumstances, but are subject only to restrictions permitted by international law and within the limits established by it.
Through this report, Al-Marsad seeks to contribute to documenting the situation of Syrian detainees, highlighting the challenges facing their families and lawyers, and supporting efforts to strengthen respect for fundamental legal safeguards in accordance with the principles underlying international law and ensuring the protection of the rights of all persons deprived of their liberty without discrimination.
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