Grief of Thousands Still Missing in Gaza After Ceasefire

Ten months after the ceasefire was announced, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are still reported missing.

Ahmed al Madhoun appears to be someone who, amid all the hardship, still loves life. A stocky young man with a cheerful smile and a manner that often draws laughter.

From her partially destroyed home in Gaza City, his mother, Majdiya, showed the BBC several videos of Ahmed stored on her mobile phone. In one video, Ahmed is seen hugging a kitten. He sticks out his tongue and cries out happily. In another, he drops belly-first into a swimming pool, then resurfaces with a broad smile.

“Everyone is his friend,” Majdiya told the BBC. “He is loved wherever he goes, and he is always smiling.”

But Ahmed, who has Down’s syndrome, is now unaccounted for. The 21-year-old has been missing since May 2025 after going to a shop near his home. At the time, the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel was still raging.

On the day Ahmed disappeared, an Israeli attack took place in the area. Majdiya fears her son has died, but to this day she has no certainty.

“Oh God, my heart is never at peace,” she said. “I have not lost hope. But whether he is found alive or dead, even buried under the rubble, only then will I be able to feel calm.”

The pain Majdiya feels is shared by many mothers across Gaza.

More than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military operation, including around 1,200 who died after the ceasefire was announced in October last year, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Those figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israeli media reported in January that a senior Israeli security source said the military accepted that the casualty figures released by the Gaza health authorities were accurate.

However, the true number of Palestinians killed is likely far higher. The casualty data issued by the health ministry does not include bodies still buried under the rubble of buildings, meaning many of the missing have not been counted.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it has received more than 5,000 requests to trace missing people who may still be buried amid the wreckage. Meanwhile, the Gaza Civil Defence agency estimates the number of missing at more than 8,000.

The discovery of bodies still occurs almost daily. Earlier this month, a mass burial was held in Gaza City for more than a hundred people killed in Israeli strikes in 2023. Their remains were recently recovered and identified, allowing them finally to be buried properly.

The Red Cross says the process of recovering bodies is extremely difficult given the scale of the destruction and the shortage of heavy equipment such as bulldozers. In many cases, identifying the dead is also a challenge because the victims died long ago. Limited DNA testing facilities, partly due to Israeli restrictions on goods allowed into Gaza, further complicate the process.

Ahmed al Madhoun’s family accepts that he has probably been killed. But they are also haunted by another possibility: that Ahmed is being held by Israeli security forces.

For more than a year, Majdiya al Madhoun has continued trying to find any trace of her missing son.

During nearly three years of war, Israeli forces have detained around 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza. Of that number, more than 5,000 were later released without ever being charged, according to the Public Committee Against Torture, an Israel-based organisation.

According to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, as of this month around 1,300 Gazans remain held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial. The organisation added that the figure does not include Gazan detainees held directly by the Israeli military.

According to HaMoked and several other rights organisations, Palestinian families often receive no notification from Israeli authorities about arrests or the whereabouts of their relatives. As a result, many families must rely on non-governmental organisations and lawyers to trace missing family members.

The BBC has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) for comment on reports of their failure to inform families of detainees. Israeli authorities have previously said that prolonged detention is carried out on security grounds during wartime. They also deny accusations that detentions are arbitrary.

In the Sabra district of Gaza City, Aida al Drimli showed us a photograph of her son, Mahmoud. In the picture, the fresh-faced young man wears a Palestinian scarf draped over his shoulders.

Aida al Drimli has been searching for her son since 2024.

“He is a calm and polite young man,” Aida said. “He loves everyone, and everyone loves him too.”

Mahmoud disappeared in 2024. His family initially feared he had been killed in an Israeli strike.

“His father went to the hospital and checked the bodies there,” Aida told us. “But I could not bring myself to do it. I was completely shattered.”

But this summer, a photograph appeared on social media showing two Israeli soldiers posing next to a detained Palestinian. In the photo, the detainee appears blindfolded and bound.

Aida believes the person in the photo is Mahmoud.

“From his facial features, his forehead, his mouth, his nose, the way he sits, the way he closes his mouth, his hands, even the shape of his legs. Those features are exactly the same as my son’s,” she said.

Aida al Drimli believes this photo shows her long-missing son.

But with only a single photograph, Aida knows she cannot be truly certain.

“When my husband sat down and showed me the photo, I felt relieved,” she said. “But at the same time, I was very sad and my heart was broken seeing my son in that condition. It was deeply humiliating.”

Both the al Drimli and al Madhoun families say that they and their sons have no connection to Hamas or any other armed group in Gaza.

The BBC has asked the Israel Prison Service (IPS) about the two men. The IPS said it has no record that they were ever held in its facilities. The same question was also put to the Israeli military, which also runs detention centres and prisons. To date, no response has been given.

Israel does not allow international journalists, including the BBC, to access Gaza independently.

The al Drimli family has asked the Red Cross to help determine whether Mahmoud is detained. However, Israel does not grant the Red Cross access to records of detainees in its prisons.

Tal Steiner, an Israeli lawyer who helps trace Palestinians possibly held by Israel, told the BBC that “7 October changed everything”, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war that followed.

“The ban on the International Committee of the Red Cross visiting prisons, and the fact that the ICRC itself does not have a list of people detained by Israel, means we have to trace them one by one based on family requests,” she said. “That places an enormous burden on the current search efforts.”

Steiner said that for many families, uncertainty is the heaviest burden.

“It is like an open wound. The wound never heals. They can never be at peace because they do not even know whether their family member is alive or dead,” she said.

According to Steiner, over the past three years Israel has also made the process of tracing Palestinians who may be detained far more difficult.

“For those who do not know the whereabouts of their family members, this condition truly compounds the suffering that already exists. It is an extremely heavy mental strain that can last for months or even years.”