Viral photo gives Gaza family a bittersweet glimpse of their missing son
asserted
photo → give → son
- Nearly two years after Mahmoud al-Drimly vanished in Gaza, his family spotted a viral photo of a slender young man, blindfolded and flanked by posing Israeli soldiers.
asserted
family → vanish → soldiers
- The photo, which triggered widespread condemnation, offers fragile proof that the young man, who went missing in 2024, is alive.
asserted
who → trigger → 2024
Mahmoud’s story echoes that of thousands of Gazans missing in the war between Israel and Hamas.
asserted
story → echo → Israel
BEIRUT — It had been one year, eight months and 27 days since Atallah al-Drimly said goodbye to his son that Saturday morning in 2024, when Mahmoud insisted he could no longer stay away from the home he had fled and started walking north toward Gaza City.
uncertain
he → say → City
It was the last anyone saw of him.
asserted
anyone → see → him
But on July 28 — after fruitless searches in hospital morgues and clinics; repeated entreaties to rights groups and the Red Cross; and the constant browsing through photos of Gaza’s many unidentified dead — there was Mahmoud in a picture that had gone viral on social media, detained in an unnamed site with two Israeli soldiers posing beside him.
asserted
soldiers → repeat → him
In the picture, Mahmoud sits on the floor flanked by the soldiers, looking diminutive, younger than his 22 years.
asserted
Mahmoud → sit → years
Though the slender man in the picture is bound and blindfolded, Al-Drimly insists he could still recognize his son.
uncertain
he → bind → son
“I was scrolling and the photo showed up on my Facebook.
asserted
photo → scroll → Facebook
I knew it was Mahmoud, 100%,” Al-Drimly said in a phone interview.
asserted
Drimly → know → interview
The picture shocked Al-Drimly, triggering emotions he was still parsing.
asserted
he → shock → emotions
“I felt sadness, happiness, it was all jumbled.
asserted
it → feel → sadness
Words aren’t enough to describe how I felt,” he said.
asserted
he → describe → ?
Still, Al-Drimly could count himself lucky; he at least had received some word of his son.
uncertain
he → count → son
Of the thousands who like Mahmoud went missing during the Hamas-Israel war, the crushing majority remain unaccounted for, disappeared in the death-stalked bedlam of Gaza, no hint as to whether they’re dead or alive.
asserted
they → go → Gaza
For their loved ones, it’s a pain that seems suspended in time, like a broken clock.
asserted
that → love → clock
Mahmoud’s case, otherwise unremarkable had it not received social media traction, is one of the more hidden consequences of Israel’s campaign on Gaza, which has killed some 73,658 people — most of them civilians — and wounded more than twice that number, according to health authorities in the enclave.
uncertain
most → receive → enclave
That includes the more than 1,350 people killed by Israeli fire since a national ceasefire was signed in October.
asserted
ceasefire → include → October
Since an October ceasefire, Israel has shifted the Yellow Line west, boosting its control from 53% to about 64% of the Gaza Strip.
asserted
Israel → shift → Strip
Although the Health Ministry in Gaza does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, its figures are considered accurate, including by the Israeli military.
asserted
figures → differentiate → military
Mahmoud is no fighter, his parents said.
asserted
parents → say → ?
Before the war he worked as a blacksmith, they said, and neither he nor anyone else in the family has a political affiliation, whether to Hamas or any other militant groups.
asserted
he → work → Hamas
Yet there were no lack of ways for civilians to be ensnared in the killing machine in Gaza since Israel began pummeling the region in October 2023, after operatives from the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250 others.
asserted
operatives → be → others
Mahmoud could have been a victim of an airstrike that collapsed a building over him, like the estimated 10,000 people authorities in Gaza believe are still buried under rubble.
uncertain
authorities → collapse → rubble
He could also be among the 1,300 people from Gaza detained in Israeli prisons under the designation of “unlawful combatants” by Israeli authorities — a figure that does not include those held by the Israeli military.
uncertain
that → detain → military
Another possibility: He could be among the corpses of 1,700 Palestinians — most of them from Gaza — being held by Israel, according to Israeli media reports.
uncertain
He → hold → reports
The International Community for the Red Cross, the primary international rights group involved in tracking down missing persons in the enclave, says it is dealing with roughly 5,000 to 6,000 open tracing requests in Gaza.
asserted
it → involve → Gaza
But its work in Gaza is curtailed, officials say.
asserted
officials → curtail → Gaza
One issue is Gaza authorities’ woefully reduced resources to search and retrieve bodies from the rubble.
asserted
issue → reduce → rubble
With Israel barring the entry of earth-moving equipment into the Gaza Strip, recovery operations for corpses have relied on bare hands and rudimentary tools, or have to wait for the precious few times when the Red Cross is able to bring in heavy machinery.
asserted
Cross → bar → machinery
The Red Cross says it has trained some 100 forensic practitioners in search, recovery and documentation, but with the enclave’s health system and cold storage facilities all but obliterated by Israeli attack, there are no laboratories that can handle forensic analysis.
asserted
that → say → analysis
Another major roadblock is that after Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have barred the Red Cross from visiting Israeli detention centers.
asserted
authorities → bar → centers
“It’s a black hole in our knowledge,” said Pat Griffiths, spokesperson for the Red Cross in Jerusalem.
asserted
Griffiths → ’ → Jerusalem
“If we were able to gain access to detention tomorrow, and forensic authorities had access to the equipment to exercise their full ability, you would see a big reduction in caseload.”
asserted
you → gain → caseload
Israeli authorities have also become less cooperative with Palestinian prisoner associations, delaying responses to queries if they are holding individuals, and slow-rolling notifications to families and prisoner commissions on those who died in Israeli custody, according to Sahar Francis, a lawyer who was the executive director of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner advocacy group that was recently banned by Israel.
uncertain
that → become → Israel
(The U.S. accuses Addameer of “supporting terrorism.”)
asserted
U.S. → accuse → terrorism
“If you don’t get an answer, you don’t know what to say to the families,” she said.
asserted
she → get → families
Even those who are told their loved ones are not in Israeli custody often don’t accept the response.
asserted
ones → tell → response
That Mahmoud showed up at all was a fluke.
asserted
showed → show → ?
…and 21 more, not listed.
