Rescue teams in Gaza have started the second phase of an operation to recover dead bodies from under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel during the war on the enclave, amid widespread challenges.
The second phase started on Saturday, with civil defence crews working with teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross, hoping to retrieve bodies trapped beneath debris for months.
Teams started the process in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City , while relatives of the missing stood by waiting to hear information and hoping to find the remains of their loved ones in order to bury them.
Since the ceasefire in October, Israel has heavily restricted the entry of necessary heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove the vast amounts of debris, bringing search and recovery operations to a halt.
While some equipment remains restricted by Israel, teams are focusing on specialised tools to remove large concrete blocks, as well as deploying rescue teams to manually sift through the rubble in an effort to not cause any further damage to the remains or belongings of victims.
The second phase of the operation is set to focus first on areas that had been inaccessible in recent months due to the magnitude of destruction in the area.
Mohammed Basal, the spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defence told The New Arab that the second phase of the operation will include around 400 hours of work to search various neighbourhoods, including Zeitoun, Sabra and areas across Gaza City, where many are still trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
He added that search and rescue teams are facing significant challenges, with one of the main ones being the volume of unexploded ordinance.
“Some victims may also never be found, as some bodies will have totally decomposed, and some were vapourised,” he said.
He also called on the international community to aid with the efforts, noting that 400 hours of work are not enough to complete the task, given that around 8,500 bodies are estimated to be trapped under the rubble.
“We need more time, resources, and specialised equipment to expedite these search and recover operations,” he said, urging for excavators, bulldozers and machinery to be allowed into Gaza in large quantities.
Basal stressed that rescue teams are currently working with very limited and basic equipment, and have access to only one excavator, which he said could break down at any moment, prolonging the operation for years.
Operations to recover the bodies are expected to continue for three months as families continue to grieve and search for their loved ones. Rescue teams will be documenting the locations of where the bodies were recovered and transporting them to be identified and returned to their families.
The developments come as Gaza faces a growing health crisis due to Israel's destruction of key infrastructure, including sewage systems, while dead bodies also pose health risks to civilians.