Gaza: Thousands of dead bodies still missing under the rubble, with no international action
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense search for dead bodies under the rubble after an Israeli airstrike, in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 21 April 2024
Euro-Med Monitor reports on July 2024:
More than 10,000 Palestinian men and women are missing under the rubble in the Gaza Strip, with no way to recover them or properly bury their remains, in a blatant violation of international law amid total international inaction to assist in their retrieval.
Recovering the bodies of the victims of Israel’s nearly ten months of deadly and destructive military attacks on civilians will be extremely difficult, given the lack of heavy machinery and equipment for civil defense crews and the difficulty of their work. Furthermore, the Israeli army has deliberately and methodically targetedand destroyed this machinery and equipment, while preventing any replacement equipment entry to the Gaza Strip.
In addition to intentionally using weapons with enormous destructive power that leave tons of rubble that impede the removal and recovery of bodies from underneath, Israel has a pattern of systematic operations to prevent and obstruct the recovery of victims and missing persons from under the rubble, as documented by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. These operations include targeting civil defense crews, rescue teams, and families trying to recover the bodies of victims, as well as preventing the entry of fuel necessary to operate what remains of the heavy machinery and preventing the entry of equipment.
Mrs. Maryam Imad, 19, informed the Euro-Med Monitor team that on 7 December 2023, two of her family’s homes in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, were bombed by Israeli warplanes. Among the 36 people who were inside were her parents, two of her brothers, one of whom was a child, and her grandfather, her uncles, their wives, and their children.
She added: “After more than 42 days without hearing anything, we eventually discovered that the Israeli bombing had killed every single person who was buried beneath the debris. In early April of last year, I, the sole survivor of my family, tried with my two uncles to retrieve the bodies, but we were unable to extricate any of them.
“Then the Civil Defense arrived the following day and managed to retrieve a few bodies, while the remainder were buried beneath the debris. We have not been able to bury them yet because we do not have the necessary equipment, and we still demand their recovery even though I realize they have decomposed over the course of several months. We want to bury their remains properly,” she said.