Nearly 2 months into the war, many Israelis have no idea if their relatives are dead or alive

By SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Nearly two months after Hamas infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, dozens are still unaccounted for, their families left living in limbo. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, police, the military and investigators grappled with a mass casualty crime scene, trying to identify the dead and the abducted. Getting clear answers for people’s whereabouts and numbers of deaths was, and remains, challenging. Some of the bodies of those who died were so badly burned in fires or explosions that there’s little left to identify, while others who might be alive still haven’t been traced.