Gaza City – On a day the world marks as a celebration of women, mothers in Gaza gathered with broken hearts and unanswered questions. Dozens of women stood outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in western Gaza City, holding photographs of their missing sons and daughters and demanding the truth about their fate.
The protest, organised by the Mothers of the Missing Movement, came as Palestinians marked International Women’s Day on March 8 — a day that, for Gaza’s women, arrives amid grief, devastation, and unbearable uncertainty.
Many of the mothers say their children disappeared during Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip. Some vanished while fleeing bombardment. Others are believed to be buried beneath the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods. Some may be held in Israeli detention — without any confirmation of their whereabouts.
For their families, every day without answers deepens the pain.
“A Fire Burning in My Heart”
Faten Abu Al-Kas, the mother of the missing young man, Ahmed Abu Al-Kas, stood among the protesters clutching her son’s photograph.
She said she came to deliver the message of thousands of Palestinian mothers whose lives have been shattered by the war.
“The Palestinian woman has endured suffering unlike any other,” she said. “We have lost our husbands, our sons, our fathers, our grandchildren. We have lost everything.”
Her son Ahmed disappeared on November 1, 2023, while attempting to flee from northern Gaza to the south through the Israeli military checkpoint at Netzarim.
Since that day, she has heard nothing.
“No words can describe the pain, the grief, the suffocation we live with every day,” she said. “We do not know anything about our sons who were forcibly disappeared.”
The family searched everywhere — hospitals, shelters, and even mass graves — but found no trace of him.
“We just want any information that will calm our hearts,” she said. “Whether my son is alive or dead.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“I dream of him every night, calling my name,” she said. “I want to extinguish the fire burning in my chest.”
Gaza’s Women in a Catastrophic Reality
Sanaa Awadallah, coordinator of the Mothers of the Missing Movement, said the group launched the initiative on International Women’s Day to ensure Palestinian women’s voices are heard around the world.
“March 8 is a day celebrated by women everywhere,” she said. “But for Palestinian women, it carries a completely different meaning.”
She described how women in Gaza continue to endure immense hardship while struggling to survive Israel’s war.
“Women here are living through a catastrophic reality,” Awadallah said. “Thousands of people remain missing or forcibly disappeared, and their families still do not know what happened to them.”
Israel Refuses to Provide Answers
Awadallah said families and activists have repeatedly attempted to obtain information through international organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But she said Israel has refused to cooperate with those efforts.
“We demand urgent action from all international bodies,” she said. “Palestinian women have the right to know the fate of their children under international law and the Geneva Conventions.”
Without that information, thousands of families remain trapped in agonising uncertainty.
Thousands Still Missing
According to the Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons, more than 7,000 Palestinians remain missing since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October 2023.
Among them are 3,200 women and girls believed to still be trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings.
The organisation also says some missing Palestinians are believed to be held by Israeli authorities, though their locations and conditions remain undisclosed.
In a statement, the centre warned that the continued withholding of information about detained women from Gaza raises serious fears of enforced disappearance inside Israeli detention facilities.
Families Living in Endless Waiting
The organisation said International Women’s Day has only deepened the pain of families searching for missing daughters, sisters and mothers.
“The absence of information leaves thousands of families suspended in a painful humanitarian limbo,” the statement said.
The group called for urgent international pressure on Israel to reveal the fate of all missing Palestinians and immediately disclose the locations of detained women.
It also urged that civil defence teams be allowed access to destroyed areas to recover bodies from beneath the rubble.
Thousands are still believed to be trapped there.
“Leaving the victims under the debris is a grave violation of the rights of the dead and their families,” the organisation said.
Ending the suffering of the missing, it added, is a legal and humanitarian obligation that cannot be delayed.
A War That Has Devastated an Entire Society
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has devastated nearly every aspect of life in the besieged territory.
According to Palestinian authorities, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed, over 171,000 wounded, and nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.
But for thousands of mothers, the most painful truth remains unknown.
Their children are simply gone.
And until answers come, the photographs they hold are the only proof that their sons and daughters ever stood beside them.
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