Thousands of Gaza residents remain missing three years after the conflict began

Three years after Israel launched its campaign in Gaza, countless families are still without answers about relatives who disappeared during the fighting. Some vanished amid Israeli ground assaults on neighborhoods and displacement camps, while others went missing while searching for humanitarian aid, checking on homes, or traveling near the so-called Yellow Line. For Human Rights, more than 11,000 individuals remain unaccounted for, including those presumed buried in debris and those believed to be victims of enforced disappearance.

The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared puts the number of suspected enforced disappearances between 2,500 and 3,000, covering the period from the war’s outset through the ceasefire announced on 9 October 2025. The ongoing uncertainty forces relatives to linger in a painful limbo, unsure whether to keep waiting for news or begin mourning. The situation underscores the broader humanitarian crisis and the difficulty of establishing accountability for missing persons in the conflict.