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. Since that moment, their fate remains unknown. An investigation by Quds News Network has now identified the two women and traced the events that led to their disappearance.
Quds News Network reached the family of the victims, who confirmed the identities of the women seen in the footage. They are Aisha Bakr al-Aqqad, approximately 75 years old, and her daughter Huda Mohammad Asouli al-Aqqad, born in 1984.
Their relatives say the two women never left their home in Khan Younis, even as Israeli airstrikes intensified and mass displacement swept across Gaza. While most of the extended family fled toward the crowded coastal area of al-Mawasi during the early days of the genocide, Aisha, Huda, and Aisha’s husband Mohammad, who had special needs, chose to stay behind in their home near the Ministry of Education building. They believed the Israeli army would not advance into their neighborhood.
That assumption proved fatal.
According to testimony gathered by Quds News Network, Israeli forces later entered the area. During the incursion, soldiers killed Mohammad inside the home. At the same time, they kidnapped her son, Iyad.
A relative, Reem, who is Aisha’s niece, said the family only learned what happened through a lawyer inside Israel. The lawyer located Iyad in detention and documented his account.
“Iyad told the lawyer that Israeli soldiers killed his father and arrested him,” Reem said. “He also confirmed that his mother Aisha and his sister Huda were still alive at that time.”
This testimony aligns with the video that later surfaced, showing the two women blindfolded and held in the back of a military vehicle. The footage spread widely online but offered no clues about what happened next.
Family Left in the Dark
For months, the family has searched for answers. They contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross, hoping to obtain information about the women’s whereabouts. The response brought no clarity.
“They told us they have no information about them,” said Tahrir, Aisha’s daughter-in-law. “We just want to know if they are still alive.”
She described Aisha as physically weak and suffering from illness even before the genocidal war. The uncertainty surrounding her condition has only deepened the family’s fear.
The family also reported further crimes during the same Israeli raid. Tahrir said Israeli soldiers killed another son.
"The Israelis hanged one of my husband's brothers to death and detained another", she said.
Quds News Network could not independently verify these additional Information.
Drop Site News had dtated that after weeks of inquiries, the Israeli military provided them with a statement addressing the case. The army denied holding the Aisha and Huda in custody and claimed it found no evidence that they were ever transferred to official detention facilities.
According to the statement, the incident took place “approximately two years ago” during attacks on Khan Younis. Israeli forces alleged they encountered what they described as “terrorists” in the area and temporarily kidnapped several people, including the two women.
The army claimed it later released the women inside Gaza. It also claimed that an internal review found no indication of further contact between Israeli forces and the women after their release.
The statement did not provide any evidence to support this account. It also offered no details about the exact location of the alleged release, nor did it explain why no independent organization, including the Red Cross, has any record of the women afterward.
For Aisha’s family, the investigation remains painfully incomplete. They continue to call for international intervention and transparent disclosure of what happened after the moment captured on camera.
“We are not asking for anything impossible,” her daughter-in-law said. “We just want to know where they are. Are they alive? Are they dead?"
