Amidst the devastation ravaging Gaza, families cling to hope of recovering the bodies of their loved ones, buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. However, a recent attack by Israeli forces has complicated this already painful task, leaving 11,000 missing believed to be trapped among the remains. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that Tuesday’s attacks hit several excavators throughout Gaza, halting efforts to remove debris and waste.
A correspondent for UN News was on the ground, observing people working with limited resources to retrieve their loved ones. Among them was Atef Nasr, operating an excavator in hopes of extracting the bodies of the missing. Unfortunately, his machinery was destroyed on Tuesday, leaving numerous families unable to pay their final respects to the deceased and give them a proper burial.
The Dahdouh family’s story perfectly illustrates the growing suffering in Gaza. Their son Omar fell victim to an Israeli airstrike over a year ago, and since then his body has remained trapped beneath the rubble of a seven-story building. “We searched for heavy machinery to reach him, but we couldn’t find anything,” lamented his brother Muayyad, who also noted that the attacks have destroyed the equipment they could have used to rescue those trapped.
The Dajani family similarly faces a tragic fate in Khan Younis, where their home was demolished. Ali al-Dajani expressed his desperation at being unable to recover the bodies of his three sons, buried under the ruin: “We don’t know what to do, God is our only support. All we want is to retrieve the bodies from the rubble.” Their story reveals the hardships they face daily, marked by food and water shortages.
With approximately 92% of homes in Gaza Strip devastated or destroyed, the UN estimates there are around 50 million tons of debris that will take decades to clear with current resources. This dire situation has raised alarms in humanitarian organizations, warning that delays in recovery efforts not only inflict extreme emotional suffering on grieving families, but also point towards an imminent health and environmental disaster in one of the most densely populated regions on the planet.
Referrer: MiMub in Spanish
