This photo taken shows Kinan Abou Haikal (L), the elder brother of seven-month-old baby Sam Fahd Abou Haikal, sitting next to his body at the Abou Heisheh Mosque in Hebron. AFP
The forensic gap obstructs the systematic identification of human remains as recovery teams continue reaching bodies buried beneath rubble. Other families do not know whether relatives were displaced, detained or killed without their deaths being recorded.
In a new statement, the ICRC said searches and identifications require specialised equipment unavailable in Gaza and sustained coordination among multiple organisations.
The ICRC did not provide a consolidated total for Gaza’s missing. The Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier in August that more than 8,000 people remained missing beneath rubble, but that estimate should not be read as covering everyone whose whereabouts are unknown.
Previous figures also had different scopes. An earlier missing-person investigation reported in October 2025 that Gaza’s Health Ministry had received approximately 3,600 family reports concerning people whose fate was unknown.
The ICRC separately had at least 7,000 unresolved cases at the time, excluding people believed buried beneath rubble. The lists may overlap and have changed since then.
Among the families still searching is that of Mohammed Al-Najjar, 23, who has been missing since December 2023. His sister Fatima carries his photograph and asks people whether they have seen him.
“I just want to know any news about him,” she told the ICRC.
The organisation also documented the case of 28-year-old lawyer Israa Al-Khaldi, who disappeared in 2024 while travelling from Rafah to Gaza City to visit her brothers.
“She did not come back,” her father, Majed Al-Khaldi, said. The family marked her birthday this year by producing a video to preserve her memory.
Itidal Al-Firri, 60, continues waiting for her 24-year-old daughter Walaa, regularly sitting near her door in the hope that she will return.
“I just want to know where she is,” Al-Firri said.
The ICRC said it assists searches and the recovery of bodies while helping forensic authorities improve the documentation, management and traceability of human remains.
It has also supported morgue and cemetery infrastructure and developed procedures intended to preserve information that could enable future identifications.
However, DNA-led identification requires biological samples from unidentified remains and reference samples from relatives, alongside protected databases capable of reliably matching them.
The Gaza Health Ministry and International Commission on Missing Persons Director-General Kathryne Bomberger previously said Israel had restricted DNA-testing supplies from entering Gaza.
Without testing, families attempting to identify returned Palestinian bodies have relied on photographs, clothing, scars, birthmarks and dental characteristics.
The problem became particularly visible during the return of Palestinian bodies held by Israel under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement.
By 26 November, only 99 bodies were identified among 345 transferred to Gaza through the ICRC, according to Mahmud Ashour, a spokesman for Gaza’s forensic evidence department.
Many of the remains arrived decomposed or with facial features missing, making visual identification extremely difficult.
The fate of Palestinians potentially held by Israel presents a separate challenge. Israeli restrictions on family and ICRC visits have limited families’ ability to determine whether missing relatives are detained.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in August that the continued denial of visits had persisted despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling against blocking ICRC access.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict must take all feasible measures to account for people reported missing and provide families with available information concerning their fate.
The ICRC facilitated releases, transfers and the return of human remains during the ceasefire’s first-phase humanitarian exchanges, but warned in January that thousands of families were still waiting for information.
The October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting but did not end Israeli attacks. More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since it took effect, according to Palestinian health officials.
The ICRC warned that locating and identifying the missing could take years, with some families potentially never learning what happened to their relatives.
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