GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday buried the remains of 50 martyrs, which Civil Defense crews managed to recover from beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, after remaining for nearly three years under the debris since their homes were targeted during the first months of the Israeli war of genocide.
The recovery operation took place amid a severe shortage of heavy equipment, and difficulty accessing large areas that remain under the control of the Israeli occupation army, while many Palestinian families continue to wait for the recovery of the bodies of their relatives who are still buried under the rubble of destroyed homes.
Weeks ago, the Civil Defense obtained funding from the International Committee of the Red Cross to implement a project to recover the bodies of martyrs from under the rubble, amounting to 800 working hours distributed across the governorates of the Gaza Strip, while the work of the teams is concentrated in areas where Palestinians are present and does not include areas under the control of the occupation army, according to Al Jazeera.
Over the past weeks, Civil Defense teams in Gaza City worked to recover the remains of 50 bodies, which were collected in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, after being recovered from the areas and neighborhoods of Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Sheikh Radwan, Al-Shati, and other areas within the city. The remains belong to members of several families, including the Al-Sawafiri, Al-Batniji, and Gharbiyya families, whose members died during the first months of the war in 2023.
After nearly three years of remaining under the rubble of homes, Civil Defense crews, using only one excavator, were able to reach the bodies and recover what was possible, in an arduous mission that reflected the scale of destruction inflicted on residential areas. Most of what was recovered were not complete bodies, but rather remains, bone fragments, and personal belongings, as a result of the decomposition of the bodies due to the passage of years and the conditions under which they remained under the rubble.
The current recovery operation was the second within a short period, after Civil Defense teams were previously able to recover the bodies of 112 Palestinians from under the rubble of a destroyed residential block, including members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Husaina families, after remaining under the debris for nearly three years.
Search and recovery operations are taking place amid a severe shortage of equipment and machinery necessary to remove the rubble, in the light of Israel’s prevention of the entry of heavy equipment needed by Civil Defense teams to reach the bodies buried under the rubble.
According to figures cited by human rights and international institutions, the volume of rubble and destruction in the Gaza Strip is estimated at about Sixty million tons, while the bodies of about 8,000 Palestinians remain under the rubble, amid the inability of Civil Defense teams to recover them so far. The immense scale of destruction, along with the severe shortage of equipment and restrictions imposed on the entry of heavy machinery, makes the task of reaching and recovering the bodies extremely difficult under current conditions.
Civil Defense officials said that the majority of the remains of the 50 martyrs who were recovered belonged to women and children, noting that the scene in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Medical Complex reflects a side of the scale of the tragedy left by the war. The recovered remains showed the magnitude of the suffering faced by the rescue teams, as in many cases it was impossible to retrieve the bodies completely, while other families are still waiting for their turn to reach the remains of their relatives buried under the rubble.
