DaysofPal – Mohammed Riyad Ghaboun, 12, is not waiting for a new home to replace the one his family lost in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. Instead, he is waiting for the remains of his relatives, who have been trapped beneath the rubble for eight months, hoping civil defense crews can finally recover them and give them a proper burial.
Nearby, a single excavator labors through a task far beyond its capacity, searching for an estimated 8,500 bodies and human remains still buried beneath homes destroyed by the Israeli military during its war on the Gaza Strip. On Saturday, Gaza’s Civil Defense, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, resumed recovery operations despite having only extremely limited equipment. Officials warned that, at the current pace, retrieving all the victims could take years.
Recovery efforts have repeatedly stalled in recent months because of shortages of fuel and heavy machinery. The last time Gaza’s Civil Defense announced the recovery of bodies from beneath the rubble was on May 12. On Saturday, rescue teams resumed searching for eight missing members of the Ghaboun family.
More than 73,000 Palestinians were killed and over 173,000 were injured during Israel’s war on Gaza, which ended on October 10, 2025, according to statistics included in the initial report. The war also devastated nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, severely limiting the civil defense’s ability to reach thousands of victims still trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
At the ruins of the Ghaboun family home in Sabra, rescue teams began searching for the bodies of eight relatives believed to have been buried since the house was bombed by Israeli forces in October 2025.
Slow and Difficult Recovery
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, said recovery operations are progressing “very slowly” because of the severe lack of equipment and heavy machinery.
He estimated that approximately 8,500 bodies and human remains remain buried beneath destroyed homes across Gaza, adding that numerous obstacles continue to hamper rescue efforts, including the shortage of specialized equipment and potential dangers at collapse sites.
“We issue a humanitarian appeal to all concerned parties to assume their responsibilities,” Basal said. “The resources currently available are nowhere near sufficient to deal with the enormous number of victims and missing persons beneath the rubble.”
He called for the urgent provision of heavy machinery, excavators, and specialized recovery equipment, warning that continuing at the current pace with only one excavator, liable to break down at any time, could prolong the work for years. If adequate equipment were made available, he said, the entire recovery operation could be completed in no more than three months.
The Civil Defense’s operational capacity was severely damaged during the war, leaving it ill-equipped to cope with the unprecedented scale of destruction. Clearing rubble requires specialized machinery, technical teams, and sustained logistical support.
Basal noted that recovery operations have been suspended several times in recent months due to the shortage of heavy equipment. Under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect on October 10, 2025, Israel was expected to allow the entry of heavy machinery necessary for debris removal and body recovery. According to Gaza government officials and Palestinian factions, however, those machines have not been allowed into the enclave.
Standing near the recovery site, Mohammed Ghaboun anxiously watches as rescue workers search for the remains of his relatives.
The boy, who himself survived the Israeli airstrike after being pulled from beneath the rubble, described his emotions as a mixture of anticipation and grief.
“I have mixed feelings of hope and sadness now that they have started recovering the bodies of my family members who have been missing for eight months,” he said.
“Since that day, I have lived in constant anticipation and sorrow. I only hope I can see their bodies and bury them in their graves.”
Families Still Waiting for Closure
The absence of heavy machinery has not only delayed recovery operations but has also prolonged the suffering of families who remain unable to bury their loved ones, while rescue teams continue to face dangerous conditions at devastated sites.
Yousef Al-Zaharna, an elderly survivor, recalled the bombing of a five-story building during the war that had been sheltering around 45 displaced people, most of them women and children.
He said the building was struck without warning, killing some of those inside and injuring many others.
Three of his sons were killed in the attack. The remains of two were recovered in pieces, while the third is still believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.
“As a grieving father, these moments are incredibly difficult as I wait for my son’s body to be recovered,” Al-Zaharna said. “All I hope for is to find even a part of his remains or his bones so I can bury him and have a grave I can visit.”
“The pain inside me is immense,” he added. “I await relief from God.”
The enormous scale of the destruction has further complicated recovery efforts. According to United Nations estimates and experts, Gaza is covered by between 50 million and 68 million metric tons of debris, blanketing vast residential and civilian areas.
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