‘Tell us’: Gaza family trapped between hope and pain over missing brothers

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 six-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,...