Gaza Herald – A child, Ahmad Abu Awwad, left home searching for a bag of flour to feed his starving family. He never returned. The war swallowed him without a trace.
In August 2025, Ahmad, 15, headed with thousands of other Palestinians toward aid trucks arriving through the “Morag” axis in southern Gaza, hoping to bring back food for his family, who were struggling under famine and siege.
But he never came back. His name remains on the list of the missing, with no clear answer: was he killed? detained? or is he still alive somewhere unknown?
Ahmad’s story is only one among dozens that reflect the suffering of Palestinian families who have lost their children during Israel’s ongoing genocide on Gaza since October 2023, living between grief and the desperate hope of finding them, if only to end the agony of waiting.
24 Children Disappeared Without a Trace
The Gaza Ministry of Social Development lists 24 children among those completely missing, with no confirmed bodies recovered from under the rubble.
Sawsan Al-Raqab, Ahmad Abu Awwad’s mother, says her son left on 11 August 2025 toward the “Morag” area between Rafah and Khan Younis to collect food aid for his siblings, but never returned.
“I did not leave any institution concerned with prisoners, martyrs, or the missing without asking about him,” she says. “I even asked released detainees if they had seen him, but I found nothing.”
She pauses, then adds in a voice heavy with grief: “Sometimes I wish I knew he was martyred, just so this endless waiting would stop.”
He Went Looking for His Brother and Disappeared Too
In Gaza City, the story of Wafaa Ballour is no less painful. It began on 4 November 2023, when her 14-year-old brother Ashraf went out to buy household items from Tel al-Hawa in southwest Gaza amid an Israeli ground advance.
He never returned. After the area was besieged, the family could not reach him or obtain any information about his fate.
“We tried everything, but in vain. The hope slowly faded,” she says.
The pain deepened when a relative released from Israeli detention told them he had seen Ashraf near their current displacement area.
Her other brother, Adnan (23), then went searching for him, but he also disappeared and has not been seen since.
Today, Wafaa mourns both brothers and appeals for any information that could reveal their fate.
Searching Hospitals and Morgues
Another father, Ayman Saleh, has been searching for his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, since December 2023.
After Israeli occupation forces launched a ground attack in central Nuseirat, Mahmoud left home briefly and vanished.
“We searched every intensive care unit, every morgue in hospitals, every institution related to detainees and missing persons, but found nothing,” he says.
His mother has since suffered a severe health crisis and lost her ability to speak due to the shock.
Thousands Missing, Including Children
According to Nida Nabil, director of the Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons, the exact number of missing Palestinians in Gaza remains difficult to verify due to the complexity of the situation and lack of confirmed data.
She estimates between 7,000 and 8,000 Palestinians are missing in the Gaza Strip, including individuals believed to be trapped under rubble or subjected to enforced disappearance.
Among them, she says, are approximately 2,900 children listed as missing.
