Arabic version: مقبرة غزة توفر الراحة النهائية للضحايا غير المعروفين

In Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, Lina al-Assi mourns her husband, Jihad Tafesh, who went missing during the war that began in October 2023. She believes he is buried in an unmarked grave but lacks confirmation due to the absence of DNA identification.

Lina is among many families visiting the cemetery known as the “cemetery of the missing,” which was established in October 2025. This site holds around 1,400 graves for unidentified bodies, reflecting the urgent need for burial locations.

According to Al Jazeera, Ziad Obaid, head of the cemeteries department at Gaza’s Ministry of Religious Endowments, explained that many bodies are recovered from rubble or streets, often arriving in severely decomposed conditions, complicating identification efforts.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has facilitated the transfer of bodies to Gaza’s hospitals for identification procedures, but the lack of DNA analysis facilities in the region hampers efforts to confirm identities. Families are left in a state of uncertainty, struggling with the emotional toll of not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

For Lina, the cemetery serves as a painful reminder of her loss. She expressed her desire for her husband to be recognized with a proper grave, stating, “The hardest feeling is when a loved one is buried as unknown, without a name or official identification, under a number… a deep pain that still lives in my heart.”