ICRC: 6,400 Palestinians missing in Gaza Strip

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that about 6,400 Palestinians in Gaza are listed as missing, explaining that they are trapped under the rubble, held captive in Israeli prisons, or buried without being identified, amidst the impossibility of contact between many individuals who have been separated from their families due to the ongoing aggression.

The committee added that about 1,100 new cases of missing persons have been recorded, explaining that these cases have remained unresolved since last April.

Since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, the ICRC has reported the presence of more than 8,700 missing Palestinians in Gaza, where it cooperated with 7,429 Palestinian families in collecting information.

In this context, the spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sarah Davies, indicated that the committee "receives between 500 and 2,500 calls per week on its hotlines," explaining that the majority of these calls "are related to missing family members."

Davies added that the calls "increase with the escalation of Israeli aggression against civilians, or in the event of evacuation instructions issued by the Israelis."

In the same context, and in a recent report by Save the Children, the organization confirmed that the intensity of Israeli airstrikes, in addition to unexploded bombs and missiles under the rubble, pose a great danger to rescue workers, even if the necessary equipment is available to carry out their tasks.

It is worth noting that the number of Palestinians is much higher than the number reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, as many families have not contacted the committee, while there are families whose members have all been martyred, which means that there is no one who can report their disappearance.

What the Red Cross announced comes after more than 38,340 martyrs and more than 88,290 injured were recorded as a result of the ongoing war against the Strip.

This number does not include those missing from those trapped under the rubble, who are unable to be reached by civil defense and ambulance crews due to the violent and continuous shelling.