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November 8, 2025


Gaza- The National Committee for Missing Persons described the Gaza Strip as having turned into the largest concentration of cemeteries in the world due to genocide crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces.

The head of the committee, Dr. Alaa al-Din al-Aklouk, told Al Jazeera Net that the aggression left more than 10,000 martyrs classified as missing, and they are still buried under the rubble of buildings and homes that were destroyed by the war machine above the heads of their residents.

Al-Aklouk himself lost about 50 martyrs from his family, who are still buried under the rubble of their homes, which he describes as “mass graves of rubble.” He denounces what he described as a policy of double standards and double standards followed by the world regarding dealing with the bodies of Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, and the great interest in recovering them, while neglecting the bodies of thousands of righteous Palestinian martyrs.

He considered this to be “a gross injustice and clear bias against the victims of Gaza,” calling on the international community to accelerate the reconstruction of what was destroyed by the Israeli war of annihilation, starting with removing the rubble and recovering the bodies.

Below is the text of the dialogue:

  • From the National Committee for Missing Persons in the Genocidal War on Gaza?

It is a committee born out of the suffering caused by the war on the Gaza Strip, and it is responsible for a very sensitive and humanitarian file related to huge numbers of martyrs missing under the rubble and rubble of buildings and homes, which were destroyed by the Israeli war machine over the heads of their innocent civilian inhabitants, many of whom are women, children and the elderly.

Our feelings have been stirred by the grief of thousands of bereaved families and relatives of missing persons, and we all feel oppressed as we witness the double standards policy of this world. At a time when all efforts to recover the bodies of the occupation prisoners in Gaza are collapsing, the world does not do anything about the thousands of bodies of our righteous martyrs.

We in this committee want to deliver our humanitarian message to the entire world, and to address countries and all concerned parties. We will launch digital platforms in order to document and publish the stories and legends of our martyrs. Each of them has a story and had their own lives before they were assassinated by the Israeli machine of killing and destruction. They are not numbers, and we have a duty to introduce them.

The file of missing martyrs reveals the extent of the crimes committed by the Nazi Israeli occupation against thousands of innocent people over the course of the two years of war, snatching the lives of entire families and deleting them from the civil registry, but we have a duty not to let their stories disappear, not to lose their voices, and to support them.

  • Who does this committee consist of?

The National Committee for Missing Persons includes representatives from different segments of society, and with us are wounded and bereaved families representing the missing, human rights activists, writers and opinion leaders, representatives of the relevant official bodies, the civil defense apparatus, prominent national figures, and tribal notables.

  • How was its idea born and what are its main goals?

Our thought at first was to form a national body to follow up and address the file of those missing in the Israeli war of genocide, but we found that the matter of forming such a body is not within our jurisdiction, and is entrusted to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

We appeal here to the need to form a body for war missing persons, which will officially achieve the desired goals in terms of addressing the humanitarian aspects, recovering the bodies of the martyrs and burying them in a way that preserves their dignity, taking care of their families, and preparing a legal file to prosecute Israeli war criminals in international forums and courts and try them for the horrific crimes of genocide they committed.

  • How do you classify the missing and how many are there?

Estimates of the competent official authorities indicate that there are approximately 10,000 missing persons since the outbreak of the Israeli war of genocide on the Gaza Strip during the past two years.

They are classified into 3 main segments:

  • The martyrs who were left buried under tons of rubble and rubble from destroyed homes and buildings, and it is impossible to reach and recover them due to the lack of the necessary capabilities of machinery and equipment.
  • The martyrs who were killed and left in areas classified as dangerous and under Israeli military control, and the occupation prevents humanitarian teams from reaching, recovering and burying them.
  • Missing people, we do not know anything about their fate. They may be martyrs or prisoners of the occupation, which deliberately does not reveal the numbers and names of those it arrested during its military operations and incursions into the cities and regions of the Gaza Strip during the war.

  • A statement by the Committee for the Affairs of Missing Persons stated that the Gaza Strip has turned into the largest concentration of cemeteries in the world. What is meant by this?

For example, I lost about 50 martyrs from my family and relatives in the Yarmouk neighborhood and other neighborhoods of Gaza City, and they are still buried under the rubble of their homes that were destroyed above their heads. Like me, there are thousands whose homes and families have turned into cemeteries made of rubble. These are not the cemeteries in which the dead are honored with burial. We want to extract our martyrs and honor them by burying them in graves and cemeteries that will remain a witness to the crimes of genocide.

  • The file of missing persons has different dimensions. Is there an explanation for this aspect?

Certainly, this file has important and complex legal, humanitarian and social dimensions, and the occupation bears full responsibility for them. Therefore, it is important to prepare a legal file that can be submitted before the International Criminal Court and the competent international courts.

In the human dimension, as I mentioned earlier, these missing martyrs are not numbers. They are human beings who had their own lives and dreams, which were mercilessly assassinated by the occupation, in documented war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In the social dimension, each martyr has a wife, children, and family. With his death, rights are generated that have legal controls, such as debts, marital rights, and inheritance. Keeping their file open without treatment will create serious problems that affect the cohesion of families, families, and society. We, as a tribal body, cannot bear the burden of solving these huge problems, and all efforts must be combined for that.

It must be pointed out that the bodies of the martyrs are delivered by the occupation as part of the exchange deals under the ceasefire agreement, and they arrive to us mutilated and unidentified, and they are buried without the families being able to identify them. The same applies to them, as the martyr remains missing to his family, and this generates difficult repercussions that cannot be addressed without identifying the identity and determining the fate.

  • What is required logistically to address the file of missing persons and the unidentified bodies of martyrs?

Regarding unidentified bodies, the world and the competent bodies and authorities should put pressure on the occupation to attach personal data to each martyr’s body, so that it is easy to deal with, especially with the lack of capabilities in terms of devices and equipment for scientific and medical examination and identification of the martyrs.

As for the file of missing persons, dealing with it requires opening the crossings and introducing specialized international medical and technical teams equipped with techniques, heavy machinery and equipment to remove tons of rubble and rubble, uncover their bodies, and conduct special examinations to identify the victims’ identities, and not leave them missing and unidentified.

There must also be pressure on the occupation to enable humanitarian teams to reach areas under its military control, and to allow them to search for and recover the bodies of the martyrs, in addition to the need to pressure it to reveal the numbers and names of detainees in its prisons, and to know their fate.



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