Israeli Forces Blindfold Aisha Bakr Al-Aqqad and Huda Mohammad Asouli Al-Aqqad in Gaza

A video from December 2023 showed Aisha Bakr al-Aqqad, approximately 75 years old, and her daughter Huda Mohammad Asouli al-Aqqad, born in 1984, sitting blindfolded in the back of an Israeli military vehicle, and their fate has remained unknown since then.

“A photo taken with a cellphone by Israeli Army sergeant Dolev Mor Yosef, posted on his Instagram account, and later circulated on social media, shone a light on the case of two Palestinian women who appeared blindfolded and handcuffed inside a military vehicle”

Al-Jazeera Net

Countercurrents says Quds News Network identified the two women and traced events that led to their disappearance in Khan Younis, where their relatives said they never left their home even as Israeli airstrikes intensified and mass displacement swept across Gaza.

Al-Jazeera Net

Countercurrents reports that during an incursion Israeli forces later entered the area, killed Mohammad inside the home, and kidnapped her son, Iyad, with Reem saying, "Iyad told the lawyer that Israeli soldiers killed his father and arrested him."

The same account says the family learned what happened through a lawyer inside Israel, who documented Iyad’s account, and that the footage later surfaced but offered no clues about what happened next.

In a BBC report, Jeremy Bowen described Israel’s restrictions on journalists, saying "Israel does not permit international journalists to enter the Gaza Strip," and he tied that barrier to reliance on assessments from aid organizations operating in Gaza.

The BBC quotes Pascal Hundt, Deputy Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross, saying Gaza’s civilians were facing "a crushing daily struggle to survive the dangers of the conflict" while coping with displacement and the deprivation of urgent humanitarian aid.

BBC

Bowen wrote that Israel resumed the war on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire, and he said since the beginning of March it has blocked all humanitarian aid shipments, including food and medical supplies.

The BBC also quotes Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, saying he was at a loss for words "to describe the misery and tragedy affecting the population of Gaza," adding that it had been "more than two months since they last received any aid."

RFI’s Gaza Project described Palestinian journalists filming with drones in the Israeli army’s crosshairs, saying that of roughly ten Palestinian journalists who used drones to document destruction, at least five have been killed or seriously injured since the war began in October 2023.

“A disturbing video from December 2023 showed a frail elderly woman and her adult daughter sitting blindfolded in the back of an Israeli military vehicle”

Countercurrents

RFI also reported testimony from reservist Michael Ofer-Ziv, who said that at no point during the war did he receive an official document outlining the rules of engagement, and he described the command room atmosphere as "if we see someone piloting a drone and it is not ours, the idea is to shoot at the drone and the person using it, without questions."

Al-Jazeera Net said a photo taken with a cellphone by Israeli Army sergeant Dolev Mor Yosef and posted on Instagram reopened the missing persons file, showing two Palestinian women blindfolded and handcuffed inside a military vehicle.

Al-Jazeera Net further reported that Nada Nabil, director of the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, said the number of missing and forcibly disappeared in Gaza may exceed 11,200 people, including more than 4,700 women and children, and she added that around 1,500 people are believed to be detained in undisclosed detention facilities.