At least 2,842 Gazans have disappeared since the start of Israel’s genocidal war, according to an Al Jazeera special investigation, which attributed the phenomenon to high-temperature weapons capable of vaporizing human tissue.
According to the investigation, the figure of 2,842 Palestinians classified as having "evaporated” is based on field documentation rather than estimates.
Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Doha-based Al Jazeera that rescue teams rely on a "method of elimination” at strike sites, comparing the known number of people inside a targeted building with the remains recovered afterward.
"If a family tells us there were five people inside, and we only recover three intact bodies, we only classify the remaining two as 'evaporated' after an exhaustive search yields nothing but biological traces,” Basal said, citing blood spray or small fragments such as scalps.
He stressed that classification occurs only after searches of rubble, hospitals and morgues produce no identifiable remains.
