2,842 Gaza Strip Residents Disappeared Without a Trace Due to Israeli Attacks

Gaza/DOK UN News condition

JAKARTA - A special investigation conducted by Al Jazeera managed to document the disappearance of around 2,842 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since Israel invaded the area and committed genocide.

The special report links the phenomenon of the disappearance of Gaza residents with the use of weapons with very high temperatures that are capable of vaporizing human body tissue. The investigation, titled The Rest of the Story, which aired on Monday (9/2) quoted data collected by the Gaza Civil Defense team since the war broke out in October 2023.

Forensic documentation of missing victims

According to Al Jazeera's report, the figure of 2,842 Palestinians classified as "disappeared" is based on field documentation, not just estimates.

Gaza's Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera rescue teams used elimination methods at the site of the attack, comparing the number of people known to have been inside the targeted building to the number of bodies found afterwards.

"If a family tells us there were five people inside, and we only find three intact bodies, then the other two we only classified as 'asleep' after a thorough search found nothing but biological traces," Basal said, referring to blood splashes or small fragments such as a scalp.

He emphasized that the classification was only carried out after the search under the ruins, hospitals, and morgues did not find any identifiable body remains.

The family is looking for without certainty.

The investigation also included the testimony of Palestinians who are looking for their missing family members as a result of Israeli attacks.

Yasmin Mahani said she walked through the ruins of the al-Tabin School in Gaza City at dawn on August 10, 2024 to look for her son, Saad, after the Israeli attack.

"I entered the mosque and found myself stepping on flesh and blood," Mahani told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Yasmin said he searched the hospital and the morgue for days, but found no trace of his son.

"We didn't find anything from Saad. There was not even a body to be buried. That was the hardest thing."

Extreme temperature weapons

A number of military experts interviewed in the investigation linked the case of the victim's disappearance to the systematic use of thermal and thermal weapons by Israel, which is often referred to as a vacuum bomb or an aerosol bomb.

Russian military expert Vasily Fatigarov explained that such weapons spread a cloud of fuel, which then ignited into a large fireball, producing extreme temperatures and pressures.

"To extend the burning time, aluminum, magnesium, and titanium powder are added to the chemical mixture," said Fatigarov. He added that it can increase the temperature of the explosion to between 2,500 to 3,000 degrees Celsius.

The report said a similar effect was also produced by tritonal, a mixture of TNT and aluminum powder used in a number of US-made bombs.

Type of ammunition identified

The investigation identified a number of munitions used in Gaza, including US-made MK-84 bombs, BLU-109 bunker buster bombs, and GBU-39 precision glide bombs.

According to the report, the GBU-39 was used in the attack on the al-Tabin School. Fatigarov said the weapon was designed to keep the building's structure relatively intact, but destroy all the interior through a wave of pressure and heat.

Basal said the Civil Defense team found fragments that matched the GBU-39 components at a number of attack locations where the bodies could not be found.

"The GBU-39 is designed to keep the structure of the building relatively intact, but destroy everything inside," Fatigarov said. "This weapon kills through a wave of pressure that rips the lungs as well as a heat wave that burns soft tissue."

The investigation also mentioned the use of BLU-109 bunker buster bombs in the Israeli attack on al-Mawasi, an area that Israel had previously declared a safe zone for Palestinian refugees who fled in September 2024. The report states that the bomb caused 22 people to "gas".

The bomb has a steel casing and a delay fuse, so it penetrates the ground or buildings before exploding with a mixture of PBXN-109 explosives, creating a large fireball in a confined space and burning everything in its path.

In addition, the report also mentions the MK-84 "Hammer" bomb, a unguided bomb weighing around 900 kilograms filled with tritonal and capable of generating heat up to 3,500 degrees Celsius.

Medical explanation

The Director General of the Gaza Ministry of Health, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, explained the biological impact of the weapon. He said the human body is made up of about 80 percent water.

"The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius," al-Bursh said.

"When the body is exposed to energy of more than 3,000 degrees accompanied by massive pressure and oxidation, body fluids immediately boil. Tissues evaporate and turn into ash. Chemically, it is inevitable."

Legal implications

Legal experts quoted in the investigation said the use of weapons that are unable to distinguish between civilians and combatants can be categorized as a war crime under international law.

Diana Buttu's lawyer, a lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, said the responsibility did not only stop with Israel.

"This is a global genocide, not just an Israeli genocide," he said, arguing that the continued delivery of weapons by foreign suppliers showed involvement.

"We see this flow of weapons continuing from the United States and Europe. They know that these weapons do not distinguish between fighters and children, but they still send them."

He added that international law prohibits the use of weapons that cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Accountability questioned

The investigation said the findings emerged even though the International Court of Justice in January 2024 had ordered interim measures for Israel to prevent acts of genocide.

In addition, the International Criminal Court in November 2024 issued an arrest warrant for the head of the Israeli authorities Benjamin Netanyahu.

Professor of international law Tariq Shandab assessed that the international justice system had failed the Gaza test.

"The blockade of medicines and food itself is a crime against humanity," he said. He added that the principle of universal jurisdiction in the courts of other countries can be an alternative legal path if there is political will.

For the families of the victims, the legal definition does not erase the grief. Rafiq Badran, who lost four children in an Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp, said he only found fragments to be buried.

"My four children just fainted," he told Al Jazeera. "I looked for them many times. Not a single piece was left. Where did they go?"