70 Palestinians Recovered From Gaza Rubble; 10 Were Children

Civil Defense Major Hamed Abdel Qader told The New Arab that the recovery teams had found entire families buried for years. He urged international organizations to provide equipment and resources, describing the scenes encountered by workers as “impossible to bear.” Bilal al-Sharif, speaking for the families, said the dead had been denied the right to be laid to rest and that their relatives’ grief was mixed with pride in honoring them with dignified burials.

Civil Defense said crews used two bulldozers and two transport trucks and worked for more than 230 hours to retrieve the 70 bodies. The remains of another 90 people have yet to be removed from the sites. More than 8,000 bodies are believed to remain beneath Gaza’s rubble, according to the source article.

The territory has more than 60 million tons of debris, after over 80% of structures—more than 200,000 buildings and other structures—were destroyed or damaged during two years of bombardment. United Nations experts estimate that 100 trucks would need seven years to clear the debris. More than three-quarters of Gaza’s roads are damaged, while unexploded ordnance and Israeli booby traps pose risks to recovery workers and survivors.

An analysis of Gaza’s civil registry published earlier this year found that 2,700 families had been entirely wiped out since October 2023. The source article reports that more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and roughly 176,000 wounded; over 21,500 of those killed were children. It says experts believe the actual death toll is likely higher. A United Nations commission of inquiry and other experts say Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.