In Gaza, registering a death was once—as in most places around the world—a relatively simple administrative task. A body was brought to a hospital, where medical staff issued the necessary paperwork with the civil authorities. This allowed families to update civil records, settle inheritance matters, access bank accounts, apply for assistance, or secure legal guardianship of children.
But amid heavy Israeli bombardment, detention of untold Palestinians, and repeated mass displacement, this all changed. Since October 2023, the systems that identify bodies, record deaths, and settle accounts have been pushed toward collapse. “It is an unfolding legal crisis,” said Ahmed Masoud, head of the legal department at the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared. “Thousands of cases now sit in a legal gray zone.”
Many of these families suspect that their relatives may have been killed but cannot prove it in a way the law recognizes. Other families have seen their relatives taken by Israeli forces but have not been able to confirm that they are detained, or where they are being held, leaving their fate unknown.
Research suggests the problem is widespread. The Palestine Reporting Lab, WIRED’s reporting partner on this story, worked with the Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP), a Palestinian research group, to examine the impact of Gaza’s missing persons crisis. Based on a survey of 600 people across 53 locations in Gaza, ISEP’s best estimate is that more than 51,000 people may have gone missing at some point since October 2023, with roughly 14,000 to 15,000 still unaccounted for.
According to ISEP, over two fifths—42.9 percent—of households with a missing person say they have struggled to obtain a death certificate. Roughly the same percentage report that the missing person was the family’s main breadwinner. Wives of missing men are often unable to withdraw money from bank accounts or access legal documents, pensions, and other benefits in the husband’s name.
The numbers are overwhelming. Among Gazans reporting a missing household member, 71.4 percent said the disappearance has affected their rights and legal entitlements. Over one in four (28.6 percent) reported difficulties establishing guardianship of a child, while 14.3 percent faced difficulties getting married or divorced. Others encountered financial barriers: A third (33.3 percent) of households said they could not access bank accounts associated with the missing relative, nearly one in five (19.1 percent) reported being unable to access aid reserved for widows or children who have lost at least one parent, and nearly one in 10 (9.5 percent) said they could not access an inheritance. (To estimate the total number of missing people in Gaza, ISEP used quota sampling to survey a representative pool of Gazans in 53 locations across the strip and cross-tabulated the results with existing pre- and postwar data on the Gazan population and household size.)
Samah Al-Shareif, a lawyer at the Gaza-based Women’s Affairs Center, which provides legal support for families, says the group has seen hundreds of cases where a parent couldn’t access aid for themselves or their children because of missing paperwork. She described a woman whose husband had retired before the war. The couple was relying on his pension. But when he disappeared, the woman found herself unable to access his bank account or receive his pension. “The bank has refused to deal with her,” Al-Shareif said, “insisting that she either get a death certificate or present her husband in person.” The woman has been left without income or financial security, despite the husband’s lawful entitlements.
Children whose parents are missing are perhaps even more vulnerable. Nedal Jarada heads Al Amal Institute for Orphans, one of Gaza’s longest-standing social welfare organizations. He says that the group has found itself hobbled by the lack of documentation. Some children believe that their parents have been killed, but their relatives cannot prove it; others simply do not know where a parent is. Jarada calls them “de facto orphans,” a category that has emerged since October 2023.
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