A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that her organisation currently holds 15 files on Palestinians who have been missing since the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014.
In an exclusive statement to Al-Resala, Suhair Zaqout said that the ICRC has received notification from 29 families that their children were missing following the 51-day assault on Gaza; the number has decreased to 15 after discovering the fate of 14 of those individuals.
She explained that the search process is being carried out by concerned authorities in Gaza on the one hand and the Israeli occupation on the other, and that “the missing persons could not be identified yet.”
According to statistics released by the Euro-Med Observer for Human Rights, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed during the recent aggression in 2014, including 530 children and 302 women. More than 87,010 were wounded, including 3,033 children and 1,012 women. One third of the injured children will suffer from permanent disabilities.
Zaqout noted that the files in the ICRC’s possession do not necessarily reflect the actual number of missing Palestinians, but rather the number of complaints the organisation has received.