The agonising wait for Gaza’s missing

The agonising wait for Gaza’s missing Three years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Palestinian families are still searching for answers about thousands of relatives who vanished during the war. Some disappeared during Israeli ground attacks on their neighbourhoods or displacement camps. Others went missing while searching for aid, checking on their homes or travelling near the so-called Yellow Line.

For their families, the absence of any definitive answer has left them suspended between hope and grief, unsure whether to keep waiting or begin mourning. According to the Independent Commission for Human Rights, more than 11,000 people in Gaza remain unaccounted for, including those believed to be buried beneath the rubble and those suspected of enforced disappearance. The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared estimates that between 2,500 and 3,000 people are suspected of enforced disappearance, having gone missing or lost contact with their families since the start of the war and through the ceasefire announced on 9 October 2025.

The agonising wait for Gaza’s missing Submitted by Nada Nabil on Tue, 10/06/2026 - 08:07 Three years into Israel’s genocide, families of Palestinians who vanished during the war remain caught between hope, grief and the absence of answers A child looks on as rescue teams attempt to pull people from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Gaza City, 16 September 2026 (Mohammad Abu Elseba/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters) Off Three years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Palestinian families are still searching for answers about thousands of relatives who vanished during the war. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Their fate remains unknown, with Israeli authorities still withholding the names of all those detained from the Strip and failing to identify approximately 620 bodies returned to Gaza. For the families left behind, the disappearance of a loved one has become a daily ordeal.

They live with the agonising uncertainty of not knowing whether their relatives are alive, detained, buried beneath the rubble or among the unidentified dead. Middle East Eye spoke to three families whose relatives disappeared during the war about their hopes, fears and the long wait for answers. Nidal al-Waheedi, 32 (at the time of disappearance) “If I knew he had been killed, I would have accepted it like everyone else.

But we do not even know whether he is alive or dead.” Nidal al-Waheedi's father hold a picture of him before his disappearance on 7 October 2023 (Hani Abu Rezeq/MEE) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoo…