What happens when you can’t get a death certificate in Gaza?

In Gaza registration Death was once – as in most places around the world – a relative matter Simple administrative task. The body was transported to the hospital, where medical teams prepared the necessary papers with the civil authorities. This has allowed families to update civil records, settle inheritance matters, access bank accounts, apply for assistance, or secure legal guardianship of children.

But amid heavy Israeli bombing, the arrest of countless Palestinians, and repeated mass displacement, All this has changed. Since October 2023, systems for identifying bodies, registering deaths and settling scores have been pushed towards collapse. “It is an unfolding legal crisis,” said Ahmed Masoud, head of the legal department at the Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared persons. “Thousands of cases now fall into a legal gray area.”

Many of these families suspect that their relatives may have been killed, but cannot prove it in a way recognized by law. Other families saw their relatives taken by Israeli forces, but were unable to confirm their detention or whereabouts, leaving their fate unknown.

Research indicates that the problem is widespread. The Palestinian Reporting Lab, WIRED’s reporting partner on this story, worked with the Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP), a Palestinian research group, to study the impact of the missing persons crisis in Gaza. Based on a survey of 600 people in 53 locations in Gaza, ISEP’s best estimate is that more than 51,000 people may be missing at some point since October 2023, with approximately 14,000 to 15,000 still unaccounted for.

According to the ISEP Institute, more than two-fifths – 42.9 percent – ​​of families with a missing person say they have struggled to obtain a death certificate. Almost the same percentage indicates that the missing person was the main breadwinner for the family. Wives of missing men are often unable to withdraw money from bank accounts or obtain legal documents, pensions and other benefits in their husband’s name.

The numbers are overwhelming. Among Gazans who reported the disappearance of a family member, 71.4% said that the disappearance affected their legal rights and entitlements. More than one in four (28.6%) reported difficulties in determining guardianship of the child, while 14.3% faced difficulties in marriage or divorce. Others faced financial barriers: a third of families (33.3%) said they did not have access to bank accounts linked to the missing relative, nearly one in five (19.1%) reported they were unable to access aid for widows or children who have lost at least one parent, and nearly one in 10 (9.5%) said they did not have access to an inheritance. (To estimate the total number of missing people in Gaza, the institute used quota sampling to survey a representative group of Gazans in 53 locations across the Strip and compared the results with existing pre- and post-war data on Gaza’s population and family size.)

Samah Al-Sharif, a lawyer at the Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza, which provides legal support to families, says the center has witnessed hundreds of cases where a parent was unable to obtain aid for themselves or their children due to missing papers. She described a woman whose husband had retired before the war. The couple was dependent on his pension. But when he disappeared, the woman found herself unable to access his bank account or collect his pension. Al-Sharif said: “The bank refused to deal with her, and insisted that she obtain a death certificate or present her husband in person.” The woman was left without income or financial security, despite her husband’s legal entitlements.

Children who have lost parents may be more at risk. Nidal Jarada heads the Hope Foundation for Orphans, one of the oldest social welfare organizations in Gaza. He says the group found itself stymied by a lack of documentation. Some children believe their parents were murdered, but their relatives cannot prove it; Others simply do not know the whereabouts of a parent. Jerada calls them “de facto orphans,” a category that has appeared since October 2023.