Israel-Gaza Peace Plan Live Updates: Thousands in Gaza are missing 2 years into the war. Tormented families search for clues
When Israeli bombs began falling, Mohammad al-Najjar, his wife and six children fled their house in southern Gaza late night, alongside hundreds of others from their neighbourhood, the Associated Press reported.
When the dust settled, his son Ahmad, 23, was missing, following which the family searched in nearby hospitals and asked neighbours if they had seen him. There was no trace. And nearly two years later, they are still looking.
Thousands in Gaza are looking for relatives who have gone missing in one of the most destructive wars of the past decades. Some are buried under destroyed buildings. Others have simply disappeared during Israeli military operations, the AP highlighted.
In a war where the true number of the dead is unknown, “what the accurate number (of missing persons) is, nobody knows,” Kathryne Bomberger, the director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons told AP.
“Is he a prisoner (in Israel), is he dead?” the 46-year-old father told AP. “We are lost. We are tormented by everything.” The Israeli Prison Services and the military said they could not release identifying details about specific prisoners and refused to comment on al-Najjar’s status.
About 6,000 people have been reported by relatives to still be buried under rubble, AP quoted the Gaza Health Ministry. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing, said Zaher al-Wahidi, the ministry official in charge of data.
Separately, the ministry received reports from families of some 3,600 others missing, al-Wahidi said. So far, it has only investigated over 200 cases. Of them, seven were found detained by Israel. The others were not among those known to be dead or buried under rubble, the report noted.
The ICRC has its own separate list of missing — at least 7,000 cases still unresolved, not including those believed to be under rubble, chief spokesman Christian Cardon mentioned to AP. (AP)