Families dug to retrieve the bodies of their near and dear ones, often by hand
Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip), Nov 17: The wreckage goes on for block after devastated block. The smell is sickening. Every day, hundreds of people claw through tons of rubble with shovels and iron bars and their bare hands.
They are looking for the bodies of their children. Their parents. Their neighbors. All of them killed in Israeli missile strikes. The corpses are there, somewhere in the endless acres of destruction.
More than five weeks into Israel’s war against Hamas, some streets are now more like graveyards. Officials in Gaza say they don’t have the equipment, manpower or fuel to search properly for the living, let alone the dead. Hamas, the militant group behind the deadly October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, has many of its bases within Gaza’s crowded neighbourhoods. Israel is targeting those strongholds.
But the victims are often everyday Palestinians, many of whom have yet to be found. Omar al-Darawi and his neighbours have spent weeks searching the ruins of a pair of four-story houses in central Gaza. Forty-five people lived in the homes; 32 were killed. In the first days after the attack, 27 bodies were recovered. The five still missing were al-Darawi’s cousins. They include Amani, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mom, who died with her husband and their four children. There’s Aliaa, 28, who was taking care of her aging parents. There’s another Amani, who died with her 14-year-old daughter. Her husband and their five sons survived.
“The situation has become worse every day,” said the 23-year-old, who was once a journalism college student. The smell has become unbearable.
“We can’t stop,” he said. “We just want to find and bury them” before their bodies are lost in the rubble forever.
More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The U.N. humanitarian affairs office estimates that about 2,700 people, including 1,500 children, are missing and believed buried in the ruins.
IDF conquers
western Gaza Strip
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made significant advancement in the Gaza Strip and has conquered the western part of the enclave. He said that all threats related to Hamas have been eliminated in the western part of Gaza. Gallant, a retired General of the IDF, was speaking to soldiers during his visit to the 36th Armoured Division of the IDF.
He said that the Israeli military has got specific and significant details regarding the misuse of Al-Shifa hospital during its raids there.
It may be noted that IDF has entered the Al-Shifa hospital and has reportedly neutralised five Hamas men who had fired at the advancing troops from inside the hospital premises.
The IDF said that some laptops that they could get hold of from inside the hospital had revealed the presence of Israeli hostages. (Agencies)