DaysofPal – Fifteen unidentified Palestinians were laid to rest in a mass grave in central Gaza on Friday, February 6. The deceased remained unrecognized despite being displayed for more than seven days at Al-Shifa Hospital, following their handover under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The crisis of unidentified and missing bodies in Gaza has worsened since the war launched by Israeli forces on October 7, 2023, which lasted for two years before partially halting with the ceasefire agreement that entered into effect on October 10, 2025.
Last Friday, Israeli authorities released the fifteen Palestinian bodies they had been holding, while the Committee for Managing Unidentified and Missing Bodies displayed their photographs at an event held in Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
The Committee for Managing Unidentified and Missing Bodies was established during the war to address one of the most severe humanitarian crises caused by Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The committee includes representatives from the Ministries of Health, Interior, Religious Endowments, and Justice, alongside the office of the Public Prosecutor. The Hospital Administration represents the Ministry of Health, the Information Systems Unit, and the Media Office. The Ministry of Interior contributes the Civil Defense, Forensic Evidence, and Police Medical Investigation departments.
The Ministry of Justice participates through the Forensic Medicine Department, while the Ministry of Religious Endowments manages cemetery affairs. A public prosecutor’s representative also serves on the committee.
The fifteen bodies were released after the discovery of the last remaining Israeli captive in Gaza, Ran Gozali, on Thursday, January 26, 2026. Israeli authorities are expected to release over 60 additional bodies of Palestinians whose identities were hidden, along with approximately 90 boxes containing human organs belonging to martyrs.
While Israeli forces were able to identify Gozali’s body immediately after recovering it from Al-Batsh Cemetery in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza, using advanced identification technology, Gaza authorities have been unable to identify hundreds of unknown bodies due to a lack of technical resources.
Many families in Gaza remain unaware of the fate of their missing relatives, unsure whether they were killed or detained. During the war, haphazard cemeteries appeared across Gaza, holding the remains of unidentified victims.
This issue poses a highly dangerous challenge, as some bodies were hastily buried on the edges of roads by volunteers under extreme security risks caused by ongoing shelling and ground incursions.
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