Back from the dead : The continuing agony over Gaza 9 , 500 missing people | Gaza

What Happened

Hamada al-Banna, a Palestinian man from Gaza, returned alive to his family on or around late March 2025 after a year in Israeli custody, having been presumed dead by relatives who held a three-day wake for him nearly a year ago. Al-Banna was injured by an explosion while searching for his brother Adham Yasser al-Banna near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, where Adham had been fatally shot by the Israeli army. Al-Banna was treated at Israel’s Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, then held in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison for four months, where he reported torture and suffering. His release came about two weeks before this report, with the Red Cross facilitating his return. The family’s experience highlights the broader crisis of missing persons in Gaza: the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says it has received nearly 3,500 reports of missing people, while the Gaza-based rights group Al-Dameer estimates the total at 9,500. Families of the missing, including that of Nafez Abed, continue to organize sit-ins and demand information, with the Waed Association for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners stating that thousands have appealed to international organizations to pressure Israel.

Key Actors

Why It Matters

Al-Banna’s return from presumed death underscores the agony of thousands of families in Gaza trapped between hope and grief, with no official accounting for the missing. The vast discrepancies in missing-persons figures—between 3,500 and 9,500—reflect the chaos of war and the lack of a reliable tracking mechanism, while reports of torture in Israeli custody add to the humanitarian and legal concerns. The crisis deepens the psychological trauma across Gaza and complicates any post-conflict reconciliation or accountability processes.

Watch For

Monitor for any Israeli release of further detainees as part of ceasefire negotiations or unilateral actions; updates from the Gaza Health Ministry or Al-Dameer on missing persons numbers; and actions by international bodies—such as the ICRC or UN mechanisms—to press for information on the disappeared. Also watch for any formal inquiries into enforced disappearances and torture allegations stemming from this and similar cases.