Will Gaza’s missing children ever be found?

Safaa Nakhala, a 38-year-old mother from Gaza, recounted her devastating loss, grieving the death of her husband and mother-in-law, and the moments of losing track of her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Talia, amid an airstrike that struck their home.

“On December 29, my whole world spun when the Israeli warplanes started attacking the south of Gaza, and flattened our neighbourhoods, destroyed our homes and took away our loved ones with no mercy,” said Safaa.

“The air was thick with smoke and dust, I was lost in the sounds of the loud explosions that were deafening and the chaos that I was witnessing as the whole buildings crumbled around us.

"I lost sight of my daughter and could not rush to grab her as the pathway to the living room where she was asleep had collapsed, along with the bedroom she was sleeping in,” she explained.

According to Safaa, it all happened in a matter of seconds when the airstrike had completely demolished one part of the house.

In one household of five members, Safaa and her sister-in-law are the only members who survived the attack as they were on the other side of the flat.

Misery and grief stalk both of them, especially after recovering the body of her husband and her mother-in-law and not finding the body of Talia.

Her heart is torn between hope and despair, praying for a miracle that her daughter will be alive and will one day come back to her whilst wondering if she perhaps is now 'a little bird in heaven' as she said.

“Emptiness and guilt now define my life and I live in uncertainty wondering if she is trapped somewhere under the rubble, saved and taken by someone or buried in an unknown grave or eaten by dogs and cats,” Safaa added.

With thousands of children in Gaza being casualties in the war, many can go missing as they are most likely killed during bombings, airstrikes or other violence carried out by the Israeli military.

Bodies might not always be recovered or identified, leading to uncertainty about their fate. Just like Talia’s fate.

Dr Ahmed Khatib, a Jordanian Human Rights Lawyer and a lecturer at the University of Ottawa, explains this from a legal and ethical perspective.

“The chaotic environment, frequent displacements and the destruction of infrastructure further complicate efforts to locate missing children,” he told The New Arab. 

“Missing children in Gaza, whose fate is unknown, represent a severe violation of the right to life and security under the International Human Rights Law,” Dr Ahmed said.

More than 14,000 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip, out of a death toll of more than 38,000, since Israel launched its war in October last year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and UNICEF.

The forced disappearance or abduction of children during conflicts can be considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) according to Dr Ahmed.

Perpetrators of such acts can be held accountable in international courts.

“States involved in the conflict must investigate disappearances and provide information to families,” added Dr Ahmed.

From his perspective, human rights lawyers and activists can advocate for increased efforts of search and rescue operations, involving international organisations to locate missing children and reunite them with their families or at least recover the dead bodies to be buried in marked graves.

“Legal professionals could also push for psychological, social, and legal support for families of missing children as a response to address their trauma and loss whilst also raising more awareness about the plight of missing children through media coverage and international attention,” Dr Ahmed said.

According to Save the Children, it is nearly impossible to gather and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza.

However, their estimates suggest that at least 17,000 children are unaccompanied and separated from their families, and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble.

Additionally, an unknown number of children are believed to be buried in mass graves or have been forcibly disappeared, including those detained and transferred out of Gaza.

The report also notes that 250 Palestinian children are also missing in the occupied West Bank, as of June 9.

Destroyed communication networks, homes, and civic infrastructure make it difficult to trace missing children or reunite the ones found with their families.

The recent statistics from Save The Children prove that the reported death toll of children in Gaza is likely an underestimation, as many children remain buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings and are still unaccounted for.

The chaotic and dangerous conditions on the ground have made it extremely difficult to conduct thorough searches and accurately document casualties.

Rescue efforts are often hampered by ongoing violence and limited access to necessary equipment, which means that many bodies remain unrecovered.

Additionally, some children may have been forcibly disappeared or detained, further complicating efforts to ascertain the true number of child fatalities.

Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, has urged for an independent investigation into the circumstances of Gaza’s missing children and emphasised the need for accountability.

The ongoing attacks make it extremely dangerous for what’s left of Gaza’s rescue workers to operate. 

Captain Raed Saqr from the Fire and Rescue Department at the Gaza Civil Defense told The New Arab, "Whenever a bomb or strike happens, the Gaza Civil Defense is responsible for rescuing people, but our ability to carry out these rescues is limited by the lack of advanced equipment and limited medical and rescue resources, so we are currently working with the bare minimum to save people from under the rubble.

“All the children missing are innocent, it is not a normal war, god knows how many children are truly missing and if they will ever be found, whether dead or alive, it is very difficult to determine as it is thousands of them,” Raed added.

Rodayna Raydan is a Lebanese British journalism graduate from Kingston University in London covering Lebanon

Follow her on X: @Rodayna_462