DaysofPal – Thousands of Palestinians remain missing and are feared dead beneath the ruins of bombed-out buildings across the Gaza Strip, as rescue teams struggle to reach them amid ongoing Israeli restrictions and repeated ceasefire violations.
According to Ahmed Radwan, media officer for the Palestinian Civil Defence in Rafah, more than 10,000 people are still believed to be buried under the rubble. Radwan said rescue efforts are severely hampered by the lack of equipment and medical supplies, leaving many victims unrecovered weeks after the ceasefire officially took effect.
“Civil defense teams are unable to rescue all cases and injuries due to a lack of equipment and limited medical resources,” Radwan explained, noting that heavy machinery is desperately needed to dig through layers of debris left by months of relentless bombardment.
He also accused Israel of deliberately targeting rescue workers in direct violation of international humanitarian law, further endangering those attempting to save lives or retrieve the dead.
Since the ceasefire came into force earlier this month, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and around 600 others wounded, Radwan added, underscoring that the truce has done little to protect civilians from continued Israeli attacks.
Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, added last Monday that since the start of the Israeli war, about 10,000 bodies have been buried beneath the debris of destroyed buildings throughout the Gaza Strip. Bassal said that many of these sites were bombed while hundreds of civilians were sheltering inside.
“The occupation forces targeted buildings where around 250 people were present, all of whom remain buried under the rubble,” Bassal said. “They also struck the vehicles and equipment needed for rescue operations at the same time as bombing civilian homes.”
He warned that the presence of unexploded ordnance makes recovery efforts extremely dangerous and that Gaza’s Civil Defence lacks both the capacity and safe storage areas to handle the scale of devastation. “Where will we put the rubble after we recover the bodies? How will we identify them?” he asked, voicing the despair of exhausted rescuers facing impossible conditions.
With heavy machinery blocked from entering the Strip, recovery efforts have stalled entirely in many areas. Bassal urged urgent international intervention to deliver the tools and equipment needed to retrieve bodies and bring relief to thousands of families still waiting to bury their loved ones.
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