Lack of DNA testing leaves the dead in Gaza without a name or dignity – and relatives in limbo

In the middle of a crowded hospital in Gaza, Mahmoud Ashour watches as different families crowd around a dead body.

They have come from all over the strip in the hope that they will be able to identify a loved one. But many of the bodies are so decomposed that they will remain unknown – and forensic experts who can identify the dead lack the technology to do so.