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. 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. Middle East Eye spoke to three families whose relatives disappeared during the war about their hopes, fears and the long wait for answers. Read more: The agonising wait for Gaza’s missing