Families in Gaza are still combing rubble and filing tracing requests for children and relatives missing years into the war, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday from Gaza City, with many households working from nothing more than a last known location as they appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other agencies.
The scale of the problem remains disputed. Gaza's Government Media Office puts the number of missing, including those believed to be under rubble, at around 11,200. Gaza's civil defence has cited about 8,500, while the enclave's health ministry says it has received roughly 3,500 reports of missing people. The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons estimates about 8,000, and cautions that its count relies mainly on reports from relatives, so is likely to understate cases in which entire families were killed.
The ICRC does not publish a figure at all. Its Jerusalem spokesperson, Pat Griffiths, has said the organisation holds thousands of open tracing requests, but that any single total would be out of date almost immediately as cases are opened and closed. The ICRC has said identification is being hampered by limited forensic capacity, and that thousands of families are still waiting for news of relatives believed to remain beneath collapsed buildings.
Recovery work is being slowed above all by a shortage of machinery. Palestinian Civil Defence told CBC News on 16 August that the search could take years without wider access to excavators, describing one digger working three days before stopping for a day of maintenance. One family that owns two machines cannot meet demand because of fuel costs and a lack of spare parts. The Israeli military did not respond to CBC's questions about strikes on heavy machinery. The Israeli rights group Gisha says Israel continues to block thousands of products it classifies as dual-use, including reconstruction equipment.
The physical obstacle is immense. The UN Development Programme estimated in November 2025 that the war generated 61 million tonnes of debris, and said most of it could be cleared within seven years under the right conditions, requiring $110m immediately.
Children account for a substantial share of the unaccounted for. The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons reported in April that more than 2,900 children were unaccounted for, roughly 2,700 of them believed to be under rubble. Save the Children said on 2 July that at least 21,000 children had been confirmed killed, with unknown numbers still buried, and estimated more than 7,000 separated from their families.
"No parent should have to dig through rubble or mass graves to try and find their child's body," said Jeremy Stoner of Save the Children.
Not all missing people are presumed dead. HaMoked data cited this year put around 2,660 Gazans in Israeli custody as "unlawful combatants", a category its director, Jessica Montell, says has facilitated the "forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people". The ICRC has had no access to Israeli places of detention since October 2023.
The ceasefire agreed under the US 20-point plan took effect on 10 October 2025. The ICRC said on 29 January that it had completed release and transfer operations begun in October, involving 20 living hostages, 1,808 detainees, 27 of 28 deceased hostages and 360 Palestinians. Recoveries have continued since: civil defence said 19 bodies, most of them women and children, were retrieved from a building in western Gaza City on 8 August after four days of digging.
A UN Commission of Inquiry report published on 23 June concluded that Israeli authorities deliberately targeted Palestinian children, amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Israel denies the allegation.
Britain's Middle East minister, Stephen Doughty, visited Al-Arish in Egypt on 19 August, inspecting more than £2m of UK-funded support to the Egyptian Red Crescent and saying current aid flows were "simply not enough".
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