The attacks on the Gaza Strip have stopped, but the Palestinians’ struggle for survival continues. The residents of Gaza are still starving because the enclave lacks basic necessities of life. Palestinians are doing everything, even the impossible, to secure any conditions for living. At the same time, it is estimated that the bodies of around 10.000 killed Palestinians are still buried under the rubble. Israel is preventing access to the resources and equipment needed to retrieve them. Reporting from Gaza is our special correspondent, Mohammed Asad.
The area that was once a large residential neighborhood is now a mass grave for dozens of bodies. It was struck by Israeli army shells and rockets, one after another, destroying a large number of residential buildings. These are entire blocks and multi-story buildings that have been turned into ruins. The bodies of children and entire families are still beneath that rubble.
“We came as families to ask the world for only one thing – to allow us the right to a final farewell to our loved ones who are still under the rubble, and for their bodies to be brought out with dignity,” said Shahd al-Shurafa, spokesperson for missing persons.
More than 10.000 people are still listed as missing and remain under the collapsed buildings from the start of the war until today. Palestinians have no means to retrieve them. Many of the victims’ bodies have already decomposed, while others are difficult to locate even with the help of families who are trying to find their loved ones themselves.
“We ask the world to allow the entry of heavy machinery for clearing the rubble and search equipment. That is our only demand, that the world finally sees those names, those stories and dreams that have remained buried under the rubble for more than two years, if no one has heard or remembered them,” emphasized al-Shurafa.
The Civil Defense has very limited capacities. They lack heavy machinery, metal-cutting tools, and equipment for lifting concrete blocks, which makes it impossible to recover the bodies. Families are going through deep sorrow because they only wish to find the bodies of their children and bury them according to Islamic law. But that is still not possible, even though a ceasefire has been declared, because Israel is stalling and allowing the entry of only a few useless machines with weak capacity.
