War etches emotions so profound that no human mind can truly comprehend them. In Gaza, the most harrowing desire of countless families is no longer to reunite with their loved ones but simply to find their remains—to end the torment of uncertainty. And if fate is kind, the body is still intact, spared from the horror of being devoured by stray dogs.

In a haunting scene, dozens of Palestinians gathered around a mass grave, where the remains of unidentified martyrs lay. Their hearts clung to the unbearable hope of recognising a lost son, a brother, or a father among the lifeless bodies. Silent prayers filled the air as grieving mothers and desperate fathers searched for any trace of those who had vanished without a goodbye.

A young Palestinian’s voice cracked with bittersweet relief as he finally found his brother’s body—after weeks of fearing he would never know his fate. A cruel paradox unfolded in that moment: sorrow and relief intertwined in an agonising embrace. A video captured by Snd News Agency showed the young man breaking down as he recognised his brother among the shrouded dead. Overwhelmed, he clung to a Civil Defence worker who had helped in the search. His ordeal had lasted fifty days, an unrelenting torment of uncertainty—was his brother a martyr, or had he been taken prisoner?

Elsewhere, an elderly mother from Jabalia refugee camp collapsed in anguish as she finally found the body of her son, lost for months to Israel’s relentless bombardment. Words failed her; only broken sobs escaped her lips: "My love, my son… my love, my son…"—a grief too vast for language to contain.

Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced or killed 250,000 Palestinians, according to UN reports, with the latest figures nearing 60,000 martyrs and 150,000 wounded. Palestinian sources estimate that 20,000 remain trapped beneath the rubble, while thousands more are simply missing—swallowed by the silence of war. Legal and human rights organisations are calling for the establishment of a specialised centre for missing persons and forcibly disappeared victims of Israel’s war on Gaza. The initiative comes as Israeli leaders threaten to resume full-scale attacks if ceasefire talks collapse.

Ghazi Al-Majdalawi, lead researcher at the Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons, told Snd News Agency that this initiative seeks to provide legal, psychological, and social support for the families of the missing, document the crimes of enforced disappearances, and pursue accountability at both local and international levels. He warned that Israel’s war has created an unprecedented crisis of forced disappearances, with over 14,000 people still unaccounted for—a number that continues to rise with each passing day.