This past October, my cousin Mahmoud, the son of my aunt Samah, went missing from al-Mawasi in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He is 16 and has autism.
It all started the morning of 6 October, with a call from a relative. Samah was told that her mother’s health had suddenly deteriorated and that she had been rushed to the hospital after having a heart attack.
My aunt felt she had no choice but to go and check on her mother’s condition. She left Mahmoud with his 13-year-old brother Maher and urged him not to leave Mahmoud alone until she returned.
Maher briefly stepped out to buy essentials for his other siblings, unaware that his short absence would be enough for Mahmoud to slip away into the unknown.
Since that day, Mahmoud hasn’t returned. He vanished, as if swallowed by the void….more
