JERUSALEM — Israeli government lawyers defended the secret detention of Palestinians from Gaza before the country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that the state is not required to disclose where it has held potentially thousands of detainees apprehended during the war.

The hearing, which lasted less than an hour, was the first on Israel’s incarceration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip since the conflict started on Oct. 7. It was held after an Israeli rights group, HaMoked, brought a petition to locate a Palestinian medical worker detained by Israeli forces during a raid on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in February.