'I dreamed to hug him. Now I hope to bury him': Gaza's missing haunt their families

In a small, plain white hall, dozens of mothers and wives sit silently in the front rows. Fathers, brothers and friends stand at the back, leaning against the walls.

All eyes are fixed on a screen at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, showing images of partially decomposed bodies - remains that may belong to someone they love.

Invited by local authorities in Gaza, families study the photographs closely, hoping to identify their missing sons among Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.

The bodies, bearing clear signs of torture and decomposition, were recently handed over by Israeli authorities as part of a prisoner swap deal with Hamas.

They were returned without any form of identification, including the date of death or location.

With DNA testing equipment unavailable in Gaza, the only way to identify them is for relatives to search through photographs of the decomposed bodies - a process as painful as it is necessary.
 
Among the grieving mothers looking for clues in the photos is Wafaa al-Aloul.

'My life now swings between corpse-identification groups and prisoner lists'

- Wafaa al-Aloul, mother of missing Palestinian 

Though in Egypt receiving treatment, the 45-year-old has spent hours looking at the photos since the Palestinian health ministry made them online for families to identify.

She is looking for any sign of her son, Mohammed, who went missing in September. 

"I'm searching for his face among corpses," Aloul told Middle East Eye. 

"I study every detail, from hair to hands, height, and shoes - only to collapse in disappointment. My relatives searched for the bodies Israel returned, but they couldn't find him."

As part of the deal with Hamas, Israel has so far returned the bodies of 270 people.

Most were decomposed beyond recognition, with some missing limbs, handcuffed or blindfolded, and showing signs of torture and summary execution.

Only 78 have been identified by relatives so far. 

'My dream was to hug him'

Aloul was evacuated to Egypt in April 2024 after sustaining severe burns from Israeli bombing in the area where her family had taken shelter in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Since then, she has been waiting desperately to be reunited with her children in Gaza.

In September, she learned that her eldest son, Mohammed, had gone missing after going out to find wood and tarpaulins to build a makeshift shelter for the family, who had been recently displaced.

"That was the last time anyone in the family saw him," she said.

"He left with a relative to find something to protect the family, and they both disappeared. They never came back. Since then, I have lived in agony," she added.

Even after a ceasefire took effect in October, the family received no news. Relatives searched everywhere - in buildings, under rubble, along the streets - but found no trace.

"Some told us he may have been killed and buried in the sand when Israeli forces bulldozed entire streets," Aloul said. "Maybe they buried his body. Maybe they took him. Maybe he's alive, detained somewhere."

Remembering her son, the grieving mother said Mohammed was gentle and peaceful. 

He had finished high school just before the war started and was thinking about university. 

"I remember the nights he spent studying. We dreamed about university. We struggled financially, and he told me he would delay his studies so we could save for tuition," she recalled.

Now, she spends her days searching for him among tortured detainees and mutilated bodies.

"How did I become a mother who hopes to find her child among mutilated corpses, just to know where he rests? My dream was to hug him outside Gaza. Now I pray simply to bury him," she added. 

Thousands of families in Gaza face the same torment - unsure if their loved ones were killed, buried in rubble or forcibly disappeared by Israel. 

An estimated 10,000 people in Gaza remain missing since the genocide began, most believed to be under the rubble.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates around 2,700 Palestinians remain forcibly disappeared in Israeli custody, with no information on their fate.

"My life now swings between corpse-identification groups and prisoner lists," Aloul said. "Sometimes I hope to see his name among detainees. Other times, I fear seeing his image among the dead."

Primitive tools

Two years into Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, only a handful of medical facilities remain functional.

The World Health Organization says over 92 percent of the Palestinian enclave's health system has been destroyed, including forensic services for unidentified remains.

Meanwhile, Israel's ongoing blockade has prevented the entry of new forensic equipment, including DNA testing machines, crippling identification efforts.

'We saw severe bruises and bleeding consistent with fatal abuse'

- Dr Ahmed Dhahir, Nasser Hospital

This has pushed the health ministry to rely on basic means, said Dr Ahmed Dhahir, head of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital. 

"We have no DNA testing, no tissue labs, no equipment," Dhahir told MEE. 

“We are forced to rely on primitive methods - noting distinctive features, clothing, injuries, shoes - photographing them, and uploading everything so families can look online and try to identify them,” he added. 

The scenes of families trying to identify their loved ones in this way have been "tragic", the doctor added. 

Although some victims have been identified, the majority remain unnamed.

Scores have been buried in a cemetery in Deir al-Balah after the legal window for identification expired. Each grave has been mapped for future reference, Dhahir said.

Another obstacle in the identification process is that many bodies arrived in an advanced state of putrefaction or adipocere (corpse-wax) formation, obscuring features, in addition to heavy freezing, which distorts faces.

This is in addition to many of the bodies showing signs of torture. 

"Many bodies we received were blindfolded and handcuffed - suggesting punitive handling and possible asphyxiation," Dhahir said. "We saw severe bruises and bleeding consistent with fatal abuse."

However, he explained that autopsies could not be performed due to the freezing, though external examinations revealed injuries that could cause death.

Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have systematically used widespread torture against Palestinian prisoners, resulting in the deaths of at least 80 detainees, 49 of them from Gaza.