Denied Basic Forensic Tools, Gaza's Missing May Never Be Found

In Gaza, a place denied access to basic forensic technology and where people disappear into Israeli detention, the fate of thousands remains unknown. One of them is a 16-year-old autistic teenager named Hassan Ali Al-Qatta. Nearly two years ago, Hassan left his home in Gaza on his bicycle and never returned. Hassan is not confirmed dead. He is not confirmed alive. He is not officially acknowledged as detained. He exists only in fragments: a photograph, an old note, the memory of a bicycle disappearing down the street. International law, says Mayy El Sheikh, a spokesperson from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is clear on the subject of identification. “Israel has an obligation to take all feasible measures to account for missing persons and to provide families with any available information on the fate and whereabouts of missing relatives,” she says. “The combined effect of Israel’s obstruction of the entry of necessary equipment and trained personnel, its failure to recover human remains and to treat them with respect and dignity, the continued withholding of bodies, and its practice of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention is foreseeable and preventable: agony for thousands of Palestinian families deprived of their right to learn the fates of their loved ones and their right to bury their dead in accordance with their customs and beliefs,” says El Sheikh. “It is cruel, inhumane, and flies in the face of international law.” In response to a detailed list of questions, the Israeli military says it “has operated and continues to operate in accordance with international law throughout the conflict,” and referred WIRED to the Israeli Prison Services for comment on detentions. The Prison Services did not respond to a request for comment. This story was produced in partnership with the Palestine Reporting Lab.