An investigation by GLAN and Sky News airs today exploring the circumstances behind the disappearance of two women, mother and daughter, Huda and Aisha Al Aqqad. The pair have not been seen since December 2023, following an Israeli military operation near their home. They had been presumed dead, but the emergence of a disturbing photograph over a year later has offered clues and raises serious questions about their whereabouts, and if Israel has a wider policy of disappearing detained civilians. 

The photograph posted on Instagram on 21 May 2024 (and later deleted), by an Israeli soldier, shows two blindfolded Palestinian women sitting in the back of a military vehicle. In the photo the women are holding hands, their faces blank in stark contrast to three Israeli soldiers opposite them who are all smiling for the camera, one pointing a pistol at the women.  

The photo was discovered and preserved by GLAN’s investigative team in December 2024, but nothing was known about the women at the time. GLAN has since identified all three IDF soldiers in the image. 

Over a year later, in January 2026, the team discovered social media reports indicating that the Al Aqqad family, from Khan Younis, had also seen the photo and recognised the women as Aisha Bakr Ahmed Al Aqqad aged 77 and Huda Mohammed Assouli Al Aqqad, aged 41.  

An investigation was launched revealing the series of events beginning on 8 December 2023, which led to the photograph being taken. Interviews with family members established that Aisha and her husband Mohammed Al Aqqad, both in their late seventies, had refused to leave their home in Khan Younis as Israeli forces advanced, a response not uncommon among elderly or disabled civilians, unable to easily comply with forced displacement orders. Three of their adult children, Huda, Iyad and Zakaria stayed with them, keeping in touch with family members who had evacuated, by phone.  

On 8 December 2023, amid heavy fighting in the area, Mohammed was shot by Israeli forces while he was praying in his own courtyard. His sons attempted to rescue him after being told ambulances couldn’t enter the aera. They were repeatedly fired on, and unable to reach their father, he bled to death. The family moved to their neighbour’s house, thinking it would offer more protection. The next day however, that home was raided by Israeli forces who abducted the family. The sole surviving family member, Iyad, who was also presumed dead but was later found to be in Israeli custody, recounted how he had watched his elderly mother Aisha, attempt to cling to her son Zakaria as she was dragged away by Israeli soldiers. There is no clear information confirming Zakaria’s fate; but it is believed he was killed by Israeli forces.  

The photograph in question was taken some time after the raid. 

GLAN and Sky News have both made multiple enquiries to the Israeli military about the women’s whereabouts. The military have refused to meaningfully cooperate, claiming that the two women were released not long after the photograph was taken, after being “temporarily detained”. Their response gave no concrete information about the date, location or circumstances of their detainment and alleged release, leaving the claims impossible to follow up on or verify.  

GLAN’s lawyers assert that this response is inadequate and deliberately vague. 

Had they been released and survived, it is unlikely they would not have made immediate contact with their family, leaving questions around the alleged release. GLAN has also received eyewitness testimony confirming that Palestinians have been released directly into “kill zones” (locations in which Israeli soldiers have instructions to shoot anyone who enters the zone). 

A policy of enforced disappearances  

Huda and Aisha’s case is not unique but is just one illustration of what appears to be a policy. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly disappeared – detained by Israeli forces never to be seen again. GLAN’s investigative team repeatedly encounters social media posts in which soldiers mock, demean and abuse detained Palestinians; only for them to vanish.  

Legal accountability 

The soldiers pictured detaining the Al Aqqad women have been identified by GLAN as Dolev David Mor Yosef, Amit Yaniv Elyakov, and Ido Dror Meir. They are part of the Namer Platoon, Company B, within the 12th Battalion of the Golani Brigade. At the time of the events, the Battalion was operating under the 7th Brigade, as part of a “combat team”. 

The treatment of the Al Aqqad women violates several fundamental guarantees towards civilians in times of war provided for in the Geneva Conventions.  

The laws of war require that civilians who are detained must be documented so that they may be afforded due process. The documentation must include details of their release, including time, date and location to avoid enforced disappearances. If that documentation process was followed in the case of Huda and Aisha Al Aqqad, the Israeli military must know the location where the women were released. 

Dearbhla Minogue, Legal Co-Lead at GLAN: “Article 27 of the fourth Geneva Convention requires that protected persons “shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity”; blindfolding an elderly woman and her daughter and mocking them by posting an image of them held at gunpoint online is a clear breach of this fundamental guarantee. Israel is required by law to account for the whereabouts of these women and the fate of many others who have disappeared in custody.” 

Maira Pinheiro, Consultant lawyer: “The Israeli military’s response on Aisha’s and Huda’s release is deliberately vague and impossible to verify, it therefore can’t be considered as credible. The IDF has a known history of disseminating falsehoods, with emblematic examples such as the March 2025 paramedic massacre, when different versions and justifications for the mass execution were concocted as new evidence surfaced. The only reason they admit to detaining Huda and Aisha is because the ‘celebratory’ photograph taken by their soldier captors was uncovered, preserved and published. The IDF holds the answer to Aisha and Huda’s fate and whereabouts, and their refusal to provide concrete, tangible and verifiable information is a deliberate form of concealment that, beyond illegal, is extremely cruel and subjects an entire family to painful uncertainty.”

Watch the report here: Gaza investigation: A family’s fight to find their missing relatives