A day after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, displaced people return to Rafah. The border city has become a mere shell of its former self, with many buildings in ruins and the remains of victims still under the rubble.
Instead of bodies, white bags are filled with clothes, bones, bits of hair, whatever families can find to help with identification. Sometimes the word “Unknown” is written on the bag in blue marker. Those souls will be buried without a name or loved ones to claim them.
Zaki Al-Shaqafa was searching among the remains that were recovered from under the rubble on Monday, searching for his nephew, Abdul Salam Al-Mughair. He recognized the shoes – gray with dark blue triangles on the sides – as he held up a photo of his 26-year-old nephew on his phone. Al-Shaqafa pointed to the design and confirmed that it belonged to his nephew.
“We lost him about five months ago,” he told CBC freelance videographer Mohammed Al-Saifi. “This confirmed that this martyr is part of our family.”
Nearby, Ibrahim Soleh, the imam of the mosque, appealed to civilians to come to the European Hospital to identify the bodies and help bury them.
He told Al-Saif: “These bodies remained in the streets and under the rubble for a long time.” “(They) have reached the point of bone and decomposition.”
That ceasefire It took effect on Sunday After more than 15 months of continuous Israeli bombing of Gaza, the operation began with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas, as well as the release of 90 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
An estimated 10,000 bodies lie under the rubble
Saliha said that he received 50 bodies that were recovered on Monday, half of which were identified.
Many of them are still under rubble across the Gaza Strip.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 15-month-old war, according to the region’s Ministry of Health. Due to the chaos of war, verifying the exact number of casualties has been difficult and subject to scrutiny.
Peer-reviewed study published in The scalpel January 9 suggests that the official numbers may be a significant underestimate. On 30 June 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 37,877 deaths; The study estimated that the number was likely to be about 64,200 by that date.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said it was searching for an estimated 10,000 bodies believed to be still under the rubble.
Haitham Al-Homs, a rescue worker with the Palestinian Civil Defense, said the agency received more than 100 calls on Monday reporting the presence of decomposing bodies under the rubble.
“This is a daily mission for civil defense,” Al-Hams told CBC News on Monday.
Destruction level ‘huge shock’
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said on Monday that at least 2,840 bodies had decomposed without any trace.
Muhammad Jumaa, who was displaced and lost his brother and nephew in the war, said the level of destruction in Gaza was a “huge shock.”
“The number of people who are shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes. It is devastation, total devastation,” Jumaa said.
“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no, no. What happened was a war of extermination.”
Optimistic Palestinians are looking forward to rebuilding the coastal enclave, which was demolished by the Israeli army following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
This attack led to the death of 1,200 people and the taking of about 250 hostages in Gaza, according to Israeli statistics.
Removing the rubble could take 21 years: report
Reports estimate that rebuilding Gaza will require billions of dollars after the extent of the destruction caused by the Israeli bombing.
A UN damage assessment released this month showed that removing more than 50 million tons of rubble left by the Israeli bombing could take 21 years and cost up to US$1.2 billion.
Meanwhile, rebuilding destroyed homes in Gaza may take until at least 2040, but could continue for many decades, according to a UN report released last year.
The wreckage is also believed to be contaminated with asbestos, and some refugee camps bombed during the war are known to have been built with the material.
A United Nations Development Program official said on Sunday that development in Gaza has set back 69 years as a result of the conflict.
While the ceasefire appeared to be largely holding on Monday, medics said eight people were wounded by Israeli fire in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said it fired “warning shots against the suspects who approached the deployed forces,” according to the ceasefire agreement.
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