Two Gaza Children Vanish Months Apart; Families Say Israeli Forces or War Are the Last Known Trace

Samar Doghmosh's 11-year-old son Mu'taz left the family's tent in eastern Deir al-Balah in December 2024 to fetch water. He has not been seen since.

"Some people tell us he was killed and that stray dogs devoured his body. Others say he was injured. The last person who saw him said he was arrested by the Israeli army," Doghmosh told The New Arab.

The family contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross after Mu'taz disappeared, asking whether he had been detained by Israeli forces or could be located. Nearly two years on, they say they have received no answer.

In northern Gaza, journalist Ahmed al-Borsh's six-year-old son Jalal, who has autism spectrum disorder, went outside to play on 30 May 2026 near the Bir al-Na'ja area, about a kilometer from the Israeli-imposed "Yellow Line." He did not come home. A shopkeeper near the boundary told the family he had seen Jalal buying juice before walking toward the line. The family searched damaged buildings with help from civil defense and forensic teams, at one point fearing a smell from a collapsed structure meant his body was trapped beneath rubble. It turned out to be a dead animal.

Thirty-five days later, a UN agency called al-Borsh to say a child believed to be Jalal had been found and asked him to come identify the body. "I went there with my heart filled with anticipation that I would finally see my son," al-Borsh told The New Arab. "But I returned with another shock. The child was not Jalal."

Jalal's mother said she has searched every neighborhood whose landmarks the war has erased. "I left no stone unturned," she told the outlet. "All I want is to know his fate."

The New Arab describes Mu'taz and Jalal as among hundreds of Palestinian children who have disappeared during the war on Gaza, some during bombardment and displacement, others believed buried under destroyed buildings, and some, families say, last seen in areas under Israeli military control before vanishing.

On Monday, Doghmosh and al-Borsh joined dozens of families in a sit-in in Gaza City, holding photographs of missing sons and daughters and demanding information rather than statistics.

Rawan Ahmed, a psychologist from Gaza, called the condition families face "ambiguous loss," a grief with no confirmation of death or survival. "The family remains trapped between hope and fear, unable to begin mourning and unable to stop waiting," she told The New Arab, describing chronic anxiety, sleep problems, and guilt that intensify as families search through rubble without answers.