The worst is feared for those in Israeli custody about whom the genocidal occupation has divulged no details
MORE than 9,500 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have remained missing or unaccounted for since the start of Israel’s genocidal assault on the enclave in October 2023, according to a report by Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights – Gaza.
Among the missing are 4,700 women and children, “in what constitutes one of the most complex and painful humanitarian crises resulting from the ongoing genocidal war,” the report said.
A staggering 8,100 individuals remain trapped in the rubble of their homes, which collapsed on them under the weight of barbaric Israeli bombardments. Due to Israeli restrictions on specialised equipment entering the Gaza Strip, civil defence crews in the resource-starved enclave have been working with limited means, which makes it extremely difficult to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs.
Among those missing are 250 civilians “who went missing while attempting to reach humanitarian aid distribution points or along routes designated for the entry of aid trucks, particularly those managed by the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF),’ which operates through American private security companies.”
Aid distribution sites run by the GHF became mass killing zones where Israelis and American mercenaries shot directly at Palestinian aid seekers. Tank shells were also fired at hungry genocide survivors, in what became sites of regular massacres. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed at these death traps.
Three children who were abducted at the aid sites recounted harrowing abuse in Israeli rape and torture dungeons. One of them revealed that he attempted suicide twice due to the extreme abuse he was subjected to during his imprisonment.
The report also records 350 Palestinians who crossed into Israel on the morning of October 7 as having gone missing. The Israelis have never revealed any details about their fate or whereabouts. Furthermore, there has been no contact with more than 800 Palestinians who were abducted either while moving from northern Gaza to the south through military checkpoints or during Israeli ground incursions into the Gaza Strip. They are all classified as missing in the report.
The worst is feared for those in Israeli custody about whom the genocidal occupation has divulged no details. At the start of the “ceasefire” in October last year, the Israelis sent hundreds of unidentified bodies to Gaza, all of which bore marks of extreme abuse and desecration. Hundreds of unrecognisable bodies were buried in mass graves. Every time a truck bearing bodies arrived in Gaza, it became the start of an excruciating journey for families with missing loved ones, as they made often futile attempts to recognise their relatives among the badly disfigured bodies.
Israel’s deliberate obstruction of evacuation efforts and the withholding of information about missing persons are systematic attempts that strip Palestinians of even the most basic recognition of their humanity.
In their full-spectrum genocide, the Israelis have unleashed their sadism in many ways; the file of missing persons is another weapon in that arsenal — another ledger of absence, another calculated strategy of erasure designed to deepen anguish, deny closure, and turn uncertainty itself into a form of punishment. — Palestine Will Be Free
