Palestinian family discovers paralysed daughter alive in Israeli prison after receiving her ‘body’ in 2024

After her family endured the tragedy of believing they had lost her, the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared revealed that the case of detainee Bisan Fadl Mohammed Fayad is a stark example of the suffering caused by Israel’s policy of enforced disappearance amid its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip for more than 22 months.

The center explained that it had followed the details announced by Fayad’s family, who, on January 7, 2024, received heartbreaking news of their daughter’s alleged “death.” They were handed a body said to be hers, along with her clothing and official identification documents.

The family lived with this grief for more than a year, torn between mourning and loss, before discovering that the truth was even harsher than they had imagined. According to the statement, on March 21, 2025, the family received a phone call confirming that Bisan was still alive inside Israeli prisons. Since that date, the family has embarked on an exhausting journey in search of the truth, reaching out to various institutions and organizations concerned with the issue of prisoners and the missing.

According to the family, it was confirmed on the morning of Sunday, August 17, 2025, that Bisan is indeed alive but suffering from a critical health condition after a spinal injury that caused partial paralysis.

The center stressed that this painful incident reflects a larger tragedy faced by thousands of Palestinians who remain missing or forcibly disappeared in Israeli prisons, where families are deprived of their basic right to know the fate of their loved ones—left suspended between despair and hope, loss and waiting.

The statement further revealed that this case exposes the Israeli army’s manipulation of corpses, which are returned without accurate identification, often accompanied only by personal documents, while the remains are in advanced states of decomposition that make recognition impossible. This is exacerbated by the limited forensic capabilities available to the Ministry of Health in Gaza for precise identification.

The center demanded the immediate disclosure of Bisan Fayad’s true medical condition, as well as the identity of the woman whose body was handed to her family and buried in Gaza under her name. It emphasized that this is a double crime: not only are detainees denied their rights, but enforced disappearance is also practiced, preventing families from knowing the truth.

The center stressed that Bisan Fayad’s case is not an isolated incident but part of a recurring pattern of suffering that requires urgent and decisive intervention. It pointed out that Israel continues to hold hundreds of detainees from Gaza in undisclosed conditions, with information indicating that dozens remain unaccounted for—whether alive or dead.

In conclusion, the center called on the international community, human rights organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to take immediate action to uncover the fate of all the missing and forcibly disappeared, ensure that families are informed about their relatives’ health and detention conditions, and work to end this ongoing crime against them.