3,200 women missing in Gaza amid genocide
On International Women’s Day, the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared stated that the occasion serves as a reminder of the tragedy facing thousands of missing women in the Gaza Strip. The crisis continues to worsen 28 months after the Israeli army launched its genocidal war, while thousands of victims remain trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and residential buildings.
In a statement, the center said field estimates indicate that around 8,000 people are currently missing in Gaza, including at least 3,200 women and girls. Other estimates suggest that women may account for nearly 70% of the total number of missing persons, although the absence of accurate data, due to massive destruction and limited access to rubble sites, makes precise figures difficult to confirm.
Women of Gaza: Life’s resilience beneath the rubble of war
The center noted that International Women’s Day arrives this year while thousands of women remain missing beneath collapsed homes or in areas controlled by Israeli forces. Others are believed to have been forcibly disappeared inside Israeli detention centers. These numbers highlight the scale of the humanitarian disaster affecting women in particular, as entire Palestinian families were buried under the rubble during widespread bombardment of residential neighborhoods, leaving their bodies unrecovered and their fate undocumented.
According to the organization, most missing women are believed to remain beneath the ruins of homes destroyed by ongoing Israeli military attacks.
Rights group: Justice for Gaza’s women requires ending the assault
Civil defense teams have been unable to recover many victims due to the lack of heavy equipment and specialized machinery needed to safely remove debris. Widespread infrastructure destruction and the collapse of emergency response capacity have left thousands of families waiting between hope and despair, uncertain about the fate of their daughters and mothers.
At the same time, the organization warned of growing concerns that some Palestinian women from Gaza may be forcibly disappeared in Israeli prisons. It documented the arrest of dozens of women during Israeli military operations, while Israeli authorities have refused to disclose the fate or locations of some detainees. This raises serious fears that some may be victims of enforced disappearance, a grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The organization stressed that the tragedy of missing women reflects the broader catastrophic reality facing Palestinian women during the war. Since October 7, 2023, at least 12,500 women have been killed, including 9,000 mothers, while 21,193 women have become war widows, losing their husbands during the conflict. These figures point to a severe breakdown of family and social structures caused by the targeting of civilians.
The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared emphasized that the international community’s focus on other regional crises, including tensions involving Iran, must not become an excuse to ignore the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The issue of the missing, particularly women, remains an open humanitarian wound requiring urgent and coordinated action.
The center called on international human rights bodies, UN committees on women and missing persons, and relevant UN agencies to take immediate steps. These include pressuring for the entry of heavy machinery into Gaza to enable rescue teams to retrieve bodies from beneath the rubble, launching independent international investigations into the fate of the missing, and obligating Israeli authorities to disclose the locations of all detained women from Gaza while guaranteeing protection against enforced disappearance.
The center concluded that ending the tragedy of the missing in Gaza is both a humanitarian and legal obligation that cannot be delayed. Leaving thousands of victims beneath the rubble or in unknown conditions constitutes a serious violation of the rights of the victims and their families and requires decisive international action to bring this ongoing crisis to an end.