More than 8,000 people are unaccounted for in Gaza, according to Gaza's Civil Defence agency, as families endure the anguish of not knowing whether missing relatives are dead or detained. The Red Cross has logged over 5,000 requests to trace missing individuals, and bodies are being recovered daily from rubble across the territory.
Mother searches for son with Down's syndrome missing since May 2025
Ahmed al Madhoun, a 21-year-old with Down's syndrome, has been missing since May 2025, when he stepped out to a nearby shop and never returned. His mother, Majdiya, told the BBC her son was universally liked, always smiling, a young man who made friends everywhere he went. Israeli strikes hit the surrounding area that day, and Majdiya cannot be sure whether her son was killed, buried under rubble, or taken into custody.
"My God, I am not at peace," she said. "I have not lost hope but whether they find him alive or dead, buried under the rubble, only then will I be at peace."
Scale of the missing and death toll in Gaza
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable, reports more than 73,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign, including roughly 1,200 since a ceasefire was announced last October. Israeli media reported in January that a senior Israeli security source said the military accepts the figures are accurate. Even so, experts believe the true death toll is higher because the count excludes those buried beneath collapsed buildings.
The Red Cross has logged more than 5,000 requests to trace missing individuals, and bodies are being recovered every day. Earlier this month, a mass funeral in Gaza City laid to rest more than a hundred people killed in 2023 whose remains had only recently been identified. The Red Cross says recovering and identifying remains is made harder by a shortage of bulldozers and limited access to DNA testing, restrictions it attributes to Israeli controls on what enters Gaza.
Detainees and mass funerals underscore crisis
Israeli forces have detained about 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza since the war began, with around 1,300 still held without charge or trial. Mass funerals reveal the scale of unidentified dead while over 8,000 people remain unaccounted for. The Red Cross continues to receive tracing requests as families search for answers, uncertain if loved ones are dead, detained, or buried under rubble.
