Number of missing grows as hostilities continue

About 6,400 Palestinians reported as missing to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on 7 October are yet to have been found, the group has said.

- Lorenzo Tondo, Sufian Taha

Many are believed to be trapped under debris, buried without identification, or held in Israeli detention while others have been separated from their loved ones, who have been unable to contact them. Approximately 1,100 new cases of missing people have been registered and remain unsolved since April, the ICRC said.

"Each week we can receive anywhere between 500 and 2,500 calls to our hotlines, and the majority of these are requests for missing family members," said Sarah Davies, an ICRC spokesperson. "The level of requests fluctuates, sometimes depending on the situation in areas of Gaza - if there are hostilities close to large numbers of people, or evacuation instructions issued, our hotline operators receive more calls with tracing requests in the hours and days that follow.