Death toll in Gaza rises as ceasefire allows rescuers to search rubble
Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on 20 January 2025
Mera Aladam reports in Middle East Eye on 22 January 2025:
As people in Gaza scour what remains of their homes and land following the ceasefire that took effect on Sunday, victims of Israel’s heavy bombardment campaign since 7 October 2023 are being recovered from beneath the rubble.
According to the latest figures from the Palestinian health ministry, the death toll in Gaza from the 15-month war has risen to 47,107, with an additional 111,147 wounded, as assessments of the scale of destruction continue.
Since the ceasefire, over 248 people have been added to the death toll, including 183 bodies found under the rubble.
The ministry noted on Wednesday that 54 dead bodies were transported to hospitals in the past 24 hours, 53 of them retrieved from destroyed buildings, along with 19 wounded.
Meanwhile, civil defence crews in the enclave announced that while searching through the rubble, they retrieved over 66 bodies on Tuesday and another 62 on Monday.
“We are waiting for difficult and arduous tasks represented in searching for the bodies of more than 10,000 martyrs, who are still under the rubble of destroyed homes, buildings and facilities, not registered in the martyrs’ statistics,” they said in a press release on Sunday.
Civil defence forces themselves have suffered tremendous loss, with about 48 percent of their staff killed, wounded or imprisoned.