‘Tell us’: Gaza family trapped between hope and pain over missing brothers
The disappearance of two boys last year has turned the Abdel Aal family’s life into an endless search for answers. Gaza City, the Gaza Strip
The disappearance of two boys last year has turned the Abdel Aal family’s life into an endless search for answers. Gaza City, the Gaza Strip – For more than a year, Ashjan Abdel Aal’s life has been suspended between grief and hope. Two of her sons, Othman and Sami, have been missing since the morning of June 29, 2025, when they left their displaced family’s home in Gaza City – only never to return. “I want them to come back,” the 36-year-old says through tears. “I want a day when I can see them, hug them and hear their voices.” Ashjan remembers the last time she saw them. The two brothers – Othman, who would now be 17, and Sami, 13 – said they would head to an aid distribution point near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, promising their si year-old sister Emarat they would bring her sweets. Ashjan also recalls hearing that they might pass by the family’s old home in the Shujayea neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City – something they had also done previously – to bring back a pair of shoes for her. The Abdel Aal family is one of the thousands to have been forced from their homes during Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 73,340 people, according to health officials, and left much of the besieged and bombarded territory in ruins. Ashjan, her husband, Rafaat, and their children found shelter at a relative’s house in Gaza City in April last year, at a time when hunger, soaring prices and shortages of basic items pushed many people to take risks searching for food. “People were either returning to dangerous areas or going to aid distribution points because they had no other choice,” says Rafaat, 41. On August 1 last year, the United Nations said at least 1,373 Palestinians had been killed while seeking food since late May 2025 – 859 near aid distribution sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys. On the day Othman and Sami left, Rafaat was away. He had also headed towards United States-backed aid distribution sites near the Zikim area in northern Gaza. “I was there for a day and a half,” he recalls. “When I returned, my wife told me that the boys had not come back. I became very worried and started asking about them.” The family waited through the evening, hoping, in vain, that they would return. On the following day, Rafaat began searching hospitals, displacement shelters and among relatives, but found no trace of his sons – since then, the boys’ disappearance has turned the family’s life into an endless search for answers. Conflicting reports The first potential lead came more than a month later. A resident of Shujayea told the family he had seen four bodies near their old home.
The BriefWire