SAFA — Mothers and families of Palestinians missing during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza gathered outside the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in western Gaza City, demanding answers about the fate of their loved ones.

The Palestinian NGO Network organized the event, titled “The Missing Are Not Numbers,” to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Families of missing Palestinians and human rights activists participated.

Participants held signs reading “Where Are Our Sons?”, “Silence Is a Crime,” and “Together for the Truth,” stressing that every missing person has a name and rights that must not be forgotten, and that families have a fundamental right to know the fate of their loved ones.

According to figures released by Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights, around 9,500 people have been reported missing or remain unaccounted for since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Families Suspended Between Hope and Fear

Mohammed Saleha, general coordinator of the Palestinian NGO Network, said families across Gaza remain haunted by unanswered questions: Where are their sons? Are they alive or dead? Where were they buried? What happened to them?

“This is where the deepest tragedy lies,” he said.

“Death, despite its cruelty, allows a family to grieve and say goodbye. But when someone goes missing, their family is left suspended between hope and fear, between life and death, between waiting and shock,” Saleha said, describing the prolonged uncertainty as “another form of human suffering.”

He stressed that families’ right to know the fate of their missing loved ones is neither a favor granted by anyone nor a bargaining chip or political tool, but a fundamental human and legal right.

“International humanitarian law does not treat missing people as numbers,” Saleha said. “It places obligations on parties to a conflict to search for missing persons, register deaths, protect the remains of the dead, and provide information that allows families to learn the fate of their loved ones.”

“The question we put to the international community today is not: How many people are missing? It is: What will you do to find out what happened to them?”

Saleha called on the United Nations and international institutions to place the issue of Gaza’s missing people at the heart of future humanitarian and political arrangements.

He urged the Red Cross to strengthen its role in tracing missing Palestinians, following up on their cases and helping families obtain information.

Saleha also called for an urgent international program to support forensic work and the identification of human remains in Gaza by providing laboratories, equipment and expertise.

He stressed the need to properly document all cases involving missing people, detainees and those whose fate remains unknown so their names do not disappear from official records.

Saleha also called for Israeli occupation forces to comply with international humanitarian law, provide complete lists of detainees and their places of detention, and allow medical and human rights teams to search for and identify human remains.

A Mother Waiting for Kareem

Bisan Abu Jiyab, whose son Kareem went missing as a teenager, said families endure daily suffering because they have no information about their loved ones.

She called on the international community, official bodies and human rights organizations to fulfill their responsibilities and help uncover their fate.

“We, the mothers and families of those missing, live with a different kind of pain every day,” Abu Jiyab said. “When a son is killed, his family knows his fate and can bury him. But the pain of having someone missing is the pain of waiting.”

“Every day, we do not know: Is our son alive, or has he been killed? And if he has been killed, where is he buried?”

Abu Jiyab accused Israeli occupation authorities of deliberately failing to provide complete information about missing Palestinians who may be held in Israeli detention, stressing the particular need to determine the fate of women and children.

She said Kareem was 17 when he went missing and that his family has received no information about his fate despite repeatedly approaching the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations.

Abu Jiyab called on the Red Cross to intensify its efforts and press Israeli occupation authorities for information about missing Palestinians.

She said families also live with constant anxiety over what their sons and daughters may be enduring if they are being held in Israeli prisons, including alleged abuse and deprivation of basic humanitarian needs and medical care.

She also called on the Palestinian Authority and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza to actively follow up on missing persons cases and establish a reliable digital database containing verified information.

Abu Jiyab cited another widely circulated estimate of around 11,200 missing people, saying additional cases may remain unreported or undocumented.

Regarding Kareem, she said he “went missing after Israeli occupation tanks entered the al-Manara neighborhood, and no body or information about him has emerged since then.”

The family has approached international organizations and human rights groups and hired lawyers to search for information about him.

Abu Jiyab stressed, however, that many other families do not have the same access to legal assistance.

“There are many families and mothers who cannot even reach lawyers, whether inside Gaza or in the West Bank, to follow up on their children’s cases,” she said.

‘Our Sons Will Not Become Numbers’

Noha Al-Aqra, speaking on behalf of mothers of the missing, said their families would continue demanding answers.

“On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we raise our voices from the heart of suffering and tragedy to affirm to the whole world that although our sons have been forcibly disappeared, their rights are not missing and will never be buried in the records of oblivion,” Al-Aqra said.

“Death in Gaza is a tragedy that leaves behind known graves where families can mourn. But forced disappearance is a bleeding wound and a deferred death that is renewed with every sunrise.”

“Every person who is missing has a name, a story, a laugh and a face — features erased beneath the rubble of homes or hidden away in detention centers in complete silence. We will never allow our sons to be turned into numbers.”

Al-Aqra called on international institutions to move beyond statements of solidarity and take concrete action to uncover the fate of the missing, while ensuring that mothers are included as key partners in efforts concerning their children’s cases.

Source : Safa News