Ahmed Al Madoon seemed like a person who loved life despite all the difficulties. He looked like a mischievous, chubby child, who always had a cheerful smile on his face.
His mother Majdiya, living in her partially damaged home in Gaza City, shows us videos of him on her phone.
In one video, Ahmed is holding a kitten in his lap. He sticks out his tongue and shouts with joy.
In the second video, he jumps into the swimming pool on his stomach and then comes out of the water and is seen laughing.
Majdiya tells the BBC, "Everyone was his friend. Wherever he went, people loved him and he always had a smile on his face."
Ahmed has Down syndrome and is missing. 21-year-old Ahmed went missing in May 2025 after visiting a local shop. This was the time of war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
There were Israeli attacks in the area that day and Majdiya fears that her son has died. But she doesn't know for sure.
She says, "Oh God, I have no peace. I have not given up hope, but I will not have peace until he is found dead or alive, even if he is buried under the debris."
Mothers all over Gaza are feeling the same pain as in Mazdaya.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign. These include about 1,200 people killed since the ceasefire was announced last October. The United Nations considers these figures reliable.
Israeli media reported in January that a senior Israeli security official had said that the army considered these figures to be accurate.
But the actual number of Palestinians killed may be much higher. The Health Ministry figures do not include bodies buried under the debris. This means that many missing people are not part of this number.
The Red Cross says it has received more than 5,000 requests to locate missing people who are feared buried under the debris. Gaza's Civil Defense Agency believes the number of missing people is more than 8,000.
And, dead bodies are being found every day.
Earlier this month, a mass funeral for more than 100 people took place in Gaza City. These people were killed in the Israeli attack in the year 2023.
His remains were recently recovered and identified, after which he could be buried.
The Red Cross says it is difficult to recover bodies due to the scale of the destruction and the lack of bulldozers.
In many cases, it is also difficult to identify the remains, because a long time has passed since the death of the people and there is no facility for DNA testing. One reason for this is that Israel has imposed restrictions on goods coming into Gaza.
Ahmed Al Madoon's family believes he may have been murdered, but they also fear he may have been detained by Israeli security forces.
During the nearly three-year-long war, the Israeli army has detained about 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza. More than 5,000 of these people were later released without charges.
This information is according to the Israel-based Public Committee Against Torture.
Until this month, about 1,300 prisoners from Gaza were being held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial. This information has been given by Israeli human rights organization Hamoked.
The organization says that these figures do not include Gaza prisoners kept in the direct custody of the Israeli army.
According to Hamoked and other human rights organizations, Palestinian families have often not been informed by Israel about the arrests of their relatives or about their whereabouts.
As a result, many families have to rely on NGOs and lawyers for help in locating them.
The BBC questioned the IDF and Israel Prison Service about their failure to inform relatives of those detained.
On this, Israeli officials first said that long-term detention was necessary for security reasons during the war. However, he denied the claims of arbitrary detention.
Aida al-Drimali from the Sabra area of Gaza City shows us a photo of her son Mahmoud. In the picture, a young man with an innocent face is seen wearing a Palestinian scarf.
Aida says, "He was a quiet and well-mannered boy. He loved everyone and everyone loved him."
Mahmood went missing in 2024. His family feared that he had died in the Israeli attack.
Aida tells us, "His father would go to hospitals and see the dead bodies. But I couldn't face it. I was completely devastated."
But this summer, a photo surfaced on social media in which two Israeli soldiers were posing for a photo with a Palestinian prisoner. The prisoner's eyes were blindfolded and his hands and legs were tied.
Aida is sure that he is Mahmood.
She says, "His face, forehead, mouth, nose, sitting style, way of closing his mouth, hands, from below his feet, it seems that he is the same person. His appearance is exactly like my son."
But she knows that it cannot be said for sure on the basis of just one picture.
She says, "When my husband sat down and showed me the picture, I was relieved. But at the same time I was very upset and my heart broke when I saw my son in that condition. It was humiliating."
Both the al-Drimali and al-Madoon families say that neither they nor their sons have any ties to Hamas or any other armed group in Gaza.
The BBC asked the Israel Prison Service about both of them. He said he had no record of keeping either of them in custody.
We asked the same question to the department that runs the Israeli army's detention centers and prisons, but they did not give any answer.
Israel does not allow international journalists, including the BBC, to freely enter Gaza.
The Al Drimli family has asked the Red Cross to try to find out if Mahmoud has been detained. But Israel does not allow the Red Cross access to prison records.
Tal Steiner, a lawyer working in Israel, helps locate Palestinians who she suspects may have been detained by Israel. "October 7 changed everything," he told the BBC.
She says, "The International Red Cross is banned (from visiting prisons) and the fact that the ICRC itself has no list of people held in Israel's custody means that we have to locate them individually, one by one, at the request of families. This puts a huge strain on our ability to find these people today."
She also says that the hardest thing for families is that they don't know anything.
Tal Steiner says, "It is a green wound. It does not heal. They do not even know whether their loved one is alive or dead and they do not find any peace."
