As many as 15000 people are missing in Gaza with little hope of getting cognizance of what happened to them, as Israel has restricted basic forensic tools required to identify bodies. The finding has emerged from an extensive investigation chronicled by Wired, which highlights how Gaza had been turned into a “forensic desert.”
The investigation emphasizes the family of Hassan Al Qatta, a 16-year-old autistic boy who rode his bicycle out of his vicinity and never returned. The incident happened in 2024, and till now his parents did not know whether he was alive or dead or had been held in Israeli detention.
The genocidal war that unfolded started on October 7, 2023, and resulted in the displacement of family four times in a span of 10 months, affecting them drastically. Israel has blocked key forensic equipment in Gaza since its 2007 blockade, stating that these can be used by the military, leading the hospital to struggle to identify the dead.
Khalil Hamada, head of Gaza’s forensic medicine department at Al Shifa Hospital, told Wired that the bodies arrived at the hospital shattered beyond recognition, and identification depended entirely on the naked eye. “Gaza has no biometric database—no fingerprints, no dental records, no DNA profiles,” Hamada said. “Even if we had machines, we would have nothing to compare against,” He added.
“For years, we appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for forensic equipment,” Hamada said.
In 2025, ahead of the ceasefire, Israel returned 315 bodies to Gaza, most of which were without names or documentation. According to the Health Ministry of Gaza, as many as 182 were buried unidentified, and 91 were identified, mostly by their kins. The identification was done by features like scars, teeth, or other specific things.
Before October 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) could visit Palestinians who were held by Israel. However, post October 2023, the situation has changed. Israel said it was not required to tell the information of the detainees from Gaza, and the ICRC was not allowed to visit prisoners, which, according to the UN, goes against the Geneva Convention.
