'As if earth swallowed him': With war in its third year, Gazans scramble for clues to find 6,000 missing people

Israel, on Tuesday, marked the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack, as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks under a US-proposed peace plan to end the war in Gaza.

More than 700 days into the conflict, thousands of Gazans remain in search of relatives who disappeared during one of the most destructive wars of recent decades.

For Mohammad al-Najjar, the search for his son, Ahmad, 23, has become an unending ordeal.

On the night Israeli bombs began falling in southern Gaza, al-Najjar fled with his wife and six children, joining hundreds of others in terror. When the family regrouped in a distant shelter, Ahmad was missing. Despite searches through hospitals and neighbourhoods, there has been no trace of him. “It is as if the earth has swallowed him,” said al-Najjar, speaking from their ninth displacement camp in Muwasi along Gaza’s southern coast.

Thousands face similar uncertainty. Some are buried under rubble, others vanished during Israeli military operations. “What the accurate number is, nobody knows,” said Kathryne Bomberger, director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Scale of disappearances and the search for answers

The Gaza Health Ministry reports some 6,000 people remain buried under rubble, a figure likely far higher given entire families have been wiped out in single strikes. An additional 3,600 people are reported missing, with investigations launched for just over 200 cases. Seven of those investigated were found in Israeli custody. The International Committee of the Red Cross lists at least 7,000 unresolved cases, excluding those under debris.

The chaos of war has caused people to disappear in various ways: detained without notice at Israeli checkpoints, swept up in raids, or killed during offensives. Bodies are sometimes left in streets or recovered weeks later in decomposed states. The Israeli military has taken possession of an unknown number of bodies, returning several hundred unidentified corpses to Gaza for burial in mass graves, according to news agency AP.

Investigations require DNA testing, samples from families, and aerial surveys of destruction, said Bomberger. Israel has restricted supplies for such testing, a decision unaddressed by military authorities. Bomberger emphasised that finding missing persons falls to Israel as the occupying power, requiring political will.

Stories of loss and hope

Fadwa al-Ghalban has had no word of her 27-year-old son Mosaab since July, when he went to get food from their home in Maan, believing Israeli forces had left. His cousins saw him lying on the ground, but fear kept them from approaching. Later, they found only his slippers. Posting notices on social media, the family searches for any news of him, clinging to hope despite uncertainty. “Even if someone buried him, it is much easier than this fire,” she said tearfully.

Khaled Nassar has faced a double tragedy. His daughter Dalia, 28, and son Mahmoud, 24, were buried under rubble in separate airstrikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, which remains inaccessible due to ongoing military control. Nassar and his wife Khadra have spent months digging through debris in search of Mahmoud. Despite having found nothing, Khadra vowed to continue searching in any future ceasefire, saying, “even if I only find his ring on his finger or some bones to put in a grave to call it my son’s.”

The war has left Gaza in ruins and thousands of families in anguish, still holding onto hope for answers amid a conflict that has stretched beyond two years.

(With agency inputs)