‘Alive or dead?’: Gaza families trapped in information void about relatives

Thousands of Palestinian families in Gaza are experiencing uncertainty regarding the fate of relatives detained by Israel since the start of the ongoing war. Rights groups are raising concerns about a lack of information and the ICRC being barred from visiting detainees. Families report receiving conflicting information about their loved ones, sometimes learning of deaths months after they occur, as exemplified by the case of Hamza Adwan, whose family was notified of his death four months after it happened. The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society describe this lack of information as a policy of "enforced disappearance" integral to the war. Families report a chaotic system with scarce and contradictory official information, leaving them in psychological limbo.

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