By Taghreed Saadeh
Amid all the destruction caused by the occupation’s massacres against the Palestinian people in Gaza, thousands of bodies remain under the rubble, unrecovered and unable to be buried in a dignified or humane manner. Even after the ceasefire, the Israeli occupation continues to block the entry of the equipment and machinery needed to recover the bodies, leaving families to endure an ongoing tragedy and a daily nightmare, waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones and ensure they receive proper burial.
Despite the recording of high numbers of Palestinian casualties and injuries, the reality on the ground indicates that the actual number of victims under the rubble is much higher, and efforts to recover them face major obstacles. In this context, international institutions have taken the lead, issuing warnings and demanding access to the necessary equipment to rescue the devastated sector, prevent the spread of disease and epidemics, and respect the grief of families seeking reassurance that their dead will be properly buried.
Local rescue teams in Gaza work under harsh conditions, with massive rubble and insufficient or destroyed equipment. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented that thousands of bodies remain under the rubble, and recovering some of them could take years due to the shortage of bulldozers and heavy machinery required to remove the debris.
Since the ceasefire, only around 440 bodies have reportedly been recovered. International reports indicate that military remnants, including unexploded ordnance, further hinder access to the victims.
The United Nations issued a statement titled “10,000 People Feared Buried Under the Rubble,” emphasizing that reaching them could take years if the necessary equipment is not available. In another statement, the UN warned that the destruction of heavy machinery, including bulldozers and cranes, has almost frozen search efforts, meaning thousands of bodies could remain under the rubble for an extended period. In its debris removal report, the UN noted that up to 60 million tons of rubble must be cleared, a massive task requiring international coordination.
Islamic Relief highlighted that Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to locate the bodies of their family members trapped under the rubble despite the ceasefire. The organization noted that homes, schools, and hospitals have been destroyed, entire neighborhoods erased, and streets filled with roughly 50 million tons of debris.
International institutions have called for the opening of safe and sustained corridors for search teams and the entry of heavy equipment into the most affected areas, as well as an immediate halt to any attacks that would obstruct or endanger rescue operations, in accordance with international humanitarian law. They also urged the independent and transparent registration and documentation of the names of victims and missing persons to guarantee families the right to know the fate of their loved ones, and the reinforcement of international efforts to remove rubble and secure areas from unexploded ordnance to facilitate return and reconstruction.
However, all these demands have been met with Israeli rejection, leaving Gaza’s tragedy to continue, where the living and the dead suffer alike without mercy, under an entrenched occupation on Palestinian land, disregarding human suffering, the rights of the population, and compliance with international law.
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