At least 8,000 bodies are still trapped under rubble in Gaza, the civil defence says, with the lack of proper equipment stalling recovery efforts.
It comes nearly seven months into a ceasefire that has halted widespread Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian territory.
“The number may be higher – every day, new names emerge,” civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told The National.
Failure to recover the bodies not only prevents families from giving their loved ones proper burials and receiving closure, but also creates a health hazard, he said.
“Bodies that are left under the rubble inevitably decompose,” Mr Bassal said. “This contributes to the spread of rodents and stray animals all over the strip. We receive daily complaints from inhabitants but we are unable to address them.”
He said the machinery available to the civil defence is worn out and unable to handle the vast scale of destruction wrought by Israel during two years of war with Hamas.
The UN estimates that more than 61 million tonnes of rubble remain in Gaza, with less than 1 per cent of the debris from the war removed so far.
Israel still refuses to allow suitable machinery to enter Gaza to help remove rubble. However, the Israeli army recently agreed to allow the delivery of rodenticides to counter the rat infestation.
Uncertainty compounds grief
Najla Abu Younis, a 41-year-old mother from Jabalia, mourned for a year over the rubble where her 19-year-old son, Salah, was last seen in April 2025. He was trying to retrieve belongings from a relative's home when an Israeli air strike flattened the area, she said.
The family assumed the worst. Salah was officially registered as a "missing martyr," presumed buried somewhere under the debris.
“I cried for him every day and mourned a body I never had the chance to say goodbye to,” Ms Abu Younis told The National.
Then she received some unexpected news: Salah was alive and being held in an Israeli prison.
Although overjoyed at the news, she said it highlighted the thin line between mourning and hope for other families in a similar position. “Many people are like us,” she said. “They simply don’t know if their children are dead or alive.”
In the impoverished Al Saftawi neighbourhood, Amin Abu Ward visits the pile of debris that was once his home to pray every day for the souls of the 11 members of his family – his parents, siblings and their children – who were killed when it was hit by an Israeli air strike in August 2024.
“We have not been able to recover any of them. There is no equipment or tools available to do so,” Mr Abu Ward, 32, told The National. Until that day comes, he continues to pray and hold on to hope that he can give them a proper burial.
For some, the desperation to find their loved ones has even led to financial ruin. Sohaib Ahmed, 29, spent $15,000 in five days, renting bulldozers and hiring 20 workers to find his brothers Amer and Mohammad, who disappeared after an explosion in October 2024.
They dug through the ruins of six houses and of entire streets but found nothing.
“After those five days, we continued searching with our own hands – we had no money left,” Mr Ahmed told The National.
Until the civil defence receives the heavy machinery needed, the families of those trapped beneath collapsed buildings will continue to live in a “nightmare”, as Mr Abu Ward described it, walking past slabs of concrete that have become the headstones for their loved ones.
“They have the right to bury them with dignity and humanity,” said Mr Bassal, the civil defence spokesman.
