About 10,000 Palestinians remain missing, believed to be buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings during Israel’s genocidal war.
Six months into the so-called “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, thousands of families still cannot bury their loved ones.
About 10,000 Palestinians remain missing, believed to be buried under collapsed buildings since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
On October 10 last year, an internationally mediated agreement was signed between Israel and Hamas, aiming to end the conflict.
Yet for many, the war has not ended.
The United Nations says Israeli bombardment has generated more than 61 million tonnes of rubble in the besieged and battered Strip, leaving entire communities entombed.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary spoke to a Palestinian father in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Abu Mohammed survived an Israeli attack after rescuers pulled him from beneath the rubble. Four of his children did not.
Since then, he has lived beside the ruins of his home, where their bodies remain trapped.
He managed to bury his wife, his mother, and one of his children. The rest are still beneath the debris.
“I have been trying for three years to retrieve my children, but these are massive concrete slabs. There is no way I can do this, even with an excavator. This needs heavy equipment,” said Abu Mohammed. “How can I do this on my own?”
He said he has repeatedly called civil defence teams, but no one has come to assist him.
Two of his surviving children are in Cairo in neighbouring Egypt, receiving medical treatment alone, without a parent.
Barely any change
The ceasefire was supposed to allow heavy machinery into Gaza to begin recovery efforts and reunite families. Months later, that has not happened.
“Nothing has entered Gaza except the limited equipment brought in for Egyptian committees and Red Crescent’s team to retrieve Israeli captives,” Mahmoud Basal, Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson, told Al Jazeera.
“Once those bodies were recovered, the file was closed.”
Across Gaza, thousands remain buried. In just one apartment block in Bureij, at least 50 bodies are still trapped beneath the rubble, untouched since October 2023.
Six months into the ceasefire, conditions on the ground have barely shifted. Families continue to wait as bodies are not yet recovered; meanwhile, Israeli attacks persist.
Israeli forces shot and killed a young female student on Thursday while she attended a class in a tent in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, according to health and education officials.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel still occupies more than half of the Gaza Strip. It has levelled most buildings in these areas and forced residents out.
Since the ceasefire took effect, at least 738 people have been killed and 2,036 wounded. Authorities have recovered 759 bodies from the rubble.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 72,317 Palestinians and wounded at least 172,158 others.