Currently Online 
Gaza’s forcibly disappeared must not be forgotten
It has been three months since the “ceasefire” took hold in Gaza. In this time, Israel has predictably refused to comply with its obligations under the deal. It continues to block the negotiated amounts of aid into the Strip. Adequate food, medicine and temporary shelters are not reaching us. The Rafah crossing remains closed and those needing urgent medical evacuations still cannot leave.
Israel also continues to bomb us, killing more than 400 people since October 10. The Israeli army continues to demolish Palestinian homes beyond the so-called yellow line, laying waste to whole neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, there is ongoing mediation to push the ceasefire into phase two, where the army would withdraw and reconstruction would begin. While these efforts offer some hope that the situation in Gaza may improve, there is one important issue that they are failing to address: The fate of the Palestinians who remain in Israeli captivity.
After Israel received all its captives, except for the body of a deceased one, there has been no talk of the continuous suffering of Palestinians who were forcibly disappeared from Gaza by the Israeli army. There are at least 1,800 Palestinians from Gaza who remain detained; that is in addition to more than 8,000 others who have been kidnapped from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
‘Alive or dead?’: Gaza families trapped in information void about relatives
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/13/alive-or-dead-gaza-families-trapped-in-information-void-about-relatives
Israeli soldiers stand beside a truck in Gaza transporting Palestinian detainees, including one who appears to be a woman, December 8, 2023
For thousands of Palestinian families in Gaza, the ongoing Israeli genocidal war is not just about the huge loss of life, utter destruction and relentless bombardment, but the agonising silence of missing loved ones swallowed by Israel’s detention system.
“We do not know if he is detained or a martyr,” the wife of Abdul Rahman, a young man who disappeared in January, told Al Jazeera. “We filled out many forms … but hope still exists.”
This psychological limbo was highlighted this week by the case of Hamza Adwan, a 67-year-old detainee whose family was informed of his death on Sunday – four months after he actually died in custody on September 9, 2025.
Adwan, a father of nine who had already lost two sons before the war, was arrested at a checkpoint on November 12, 2024. According to his family, he was detained despite suffering from serious health issues, including heart disease, and requiring constant medical care.
The delayed notification of his death is not an isolated incident. It reflects a systematic policy of “enforced disappearance” – creating a total void of information that the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society describe as an integral part of the ongoing “war of genocide”.
