In April 2024, a sixteen-year-old boy named Hassan Al-Qatta rode his bicycle out of his neighborhood in Gaza and never came back. He is not confirmed dead. He is not confirmed alive. He has simply disappeared. Hassan is one of an estimated 9,000 to 15,000 people missing in Gaza. Journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha spent eight months reporting on what that number actually means.

This investigation was produced by the Palestine Reporting Lab, a project of Just Vision. The investigation was published last month in partnership with WIRED and published in Arabic on Raseef22.

Additional reading:

• What Happens When You Can’t Get a Death Certificate in Gaza
• Hassan Took a Bike Ride. Now He’s One of the Thousands Missing in Gaza
• Mahmoud Mushtaha’s archive at +972

The full transcript of this episode will be available on our website.

Theme music by Ghassan Birumi

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