iphone syncing photos to iCloud died and now the photos arent on phone or icloud

Was in a hotel and phone syncing photos to iCloud but it died. The process or something. Poor wifi maybe. Anyway then I restarted phone and it said syncing from iCloud. However that just hung too. Short story is I looked on phone photos, on iCloud Photos etc and 239 photos I took since last sync are all gone. Not hidden. Not deleted. Not on another device. Just gone.

guessing there is zero chance of getting them back now.

no idea what happened

latest apps and iOS etc. previously no issues.

open to thoughts but I’ve looked through all sites and discussions and tried a lot and no success.