The Tragedy of the Missing in Gaza: Stories of Children Lost to Enforced Disappearance and War Rubble

The tragedy of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip escalates with the ongoing war, as the issue of the missing has emerged as one of the most painful and complex files. Since August 2025, the fate of child Ahmed Abu Awad remains unknown after he went out to search for food for his hungry family near the Morag axis south of the Strip, joining a long list of children whose news has completely ceased.

Ahmed's mother, Sawsan Al-Raqab, lives in a state of bitter anticipation, having knocked on the doors of all human rights and international institutions to no avail. The heartbroken mother explains that she asked prisoners released from occupation prisons, hoping to find a clue that would lead her to her 15-year-old son, but without reaching any information confirming whether he is a prisoner or a martyr.

In a related context, the story of the Balour family stands out, having lost two children under mysterious circumstances in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood southwest of Gaza City. The story began with the disappearance of 14-year-old Ashraf in November 2023 while he was out to buy household necessities, before occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the area, preventing access to him.

The tragedy doubled when his older brother Adnan, 23, went out to search for him after unconfirmed reports of him being seen in a nearby area. Since then, Adnan has also disappeared, leaving the family facing two consecutive losses that have turned their lives into an endless search between the rubble of homes and detention records.

In Nuseirat camp, Ayman Saleh recounts the details of his son Mahmoud's disappearance during a ground operation by the occupation army in December 2023. The father says that the family initially refused to leave their home, hoping for Mahmoud's return, who had gone to a nearby place, but the intense shelling forced them to flee without knowing their child's fate.

The father describes the state of loss the family is experiencing, as they searched intensive care units and morgues in all hospitals in the Strip without a trace. This sudden loss led to a deterioration in the mother's health, who lost the ability to speak from the shock and grief over her missing child.

For her part, Nada Nabil, director of the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, confirmed that the circulating figures on the missing remain estimates due to the difficulty of field documentation. She explained that the total number ranges between 7,000 and 8,000 missing, distributed between those under the rubble and those who were abducted or forcibly disappeared.

Human rights estimates indicate that about 2,900 Palestinian children are currently listed among the missing in Gaza. Among these, it is believed that 2,700 children are still under the rubble of destroyed homes, while it is feared that about 200 children may have been killed in the streets or detained in secret prisons belonging to the occupation.

The competent authorities face enormous challenges in documenting these cases, especially in areas controlled by the Israeli army, which prevents medical teams from entering. Human rights sources confirm that the withdrawal of forces from some areas is the only way to uncover the fate of hundreds of families believed to have been completely annihilated under the rubble.

A recent statistic issued by the Ministry of Social Development showed that the number of child martyrs has exceeded 21,510 since the outbreak of the war. These shocking figures reflect the extent of direct targeting of childhood in the Gaza Strip, turning the Strip into a place lacking the minimum safety requirements for future generations.

The data also revealed a catastrophic social reality, as the number of orphans in the Strip rose to more than 64,000 children. Among these, about 55,000 children lost one or both parents during the recent war, placing a heavy burden on relief and social institutions already exhausted by the siege.

The figures indicate that 34,772 children have lost their mothers, while more than 61,000 children are fatherless. The most cruel of these statistics is the presence of 824 children who are the sole survivors of their families, having lost all their family members in airstrikes that directly targeted their homes.

Israeli authorities continue their systematic policy of obfuscation regarding the names of detainees from the Gaza Strip, which reinforces the hypothesis of enforced disappearance. International organizations demand urgent pressure on the occupation to reveal the fate of detainees and allow the Red Cross to visit them and check on their health and legal conditions.

The file of the missing remains a bleeding wound in the side of Gazan society, where the suffering is not limited to loss but extends to the anguish of uncertainty. Palestinian families appeal to the international community for urgent intervention to end this tragedy and provide the necessary equipment to retrieve bodies from under the rubble and know the fate of their missing children.

I don't know what my child's condition is or what he is experiencing; his name was written among the files of the missing without a specific fate known for him, and I have not left any institution without asking about him.