Gaza families plead for help to recover loved ones buried under rubble

Less than a month after the Gaza ceasefire took effect, the National Committee for the Affairs of the Missing in the Genocide Against Gaza has appealed to the international community to urgently help recover thousands of Palestinian bodies still trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the committee called for international intervention to lift debris, uncover the fate of the missing, and retrieve the remains of those killed in Israeli bombardments.

It said the effort is vital to allow families "to bid farewell to their loved ones in accordance with religious rites and social traditions".

During a vigil held in Gaza City, families of missing Palestinians joined committee members in demanding urgent action to recover the bodies and ensure dignified burials. They accused the international community of neglecting Palestinian victims while prioritising efforts to locate Israeli captives.

Committee spokesperson Alaa al-Aklouk said at a press conference that the Gaza Strip "has become the world's largest mass grave", estimating that "around 10,000 Palestinians are still missing beneath the rubble".

"These martyrs were buried under their homes, which became mass graves, without their final dignity being preserved or their bodies recovered," he said.

Al-Aklouk condemned "the absence of an active role by international and humanitarian organisations, especially those concerned with missing persons, amid an escalating humanitarian catastrophe".

He said the committee had followed "with great pain" what it called "double standards" in addressing Palestinian victims compared to efforts to recover Israeli bodies, describing the disparity as "a grave injustice and blatant bias against the victims of Gaza".

The committee urged the international community to send "specialised teams, heavy machinery, and detection technologies" into Gaza to recover bodies and conduct DNA testing to identify victims.

It also highlighted the role of the Palestinian Civil Defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross in supporting recovery efforts, calling for the acceleration of reconstruction "beginning with debris removal and body recovery".

Al-Aklouk appealed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "activate all political, legal, and logistical channels to push for the follow-up of the missing persons' file and care for their families".

He also called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to allow the entry of "all necessary equipment and supplies for debris removal, especially from collapsed residential buildings destroyed over the heads of civilians".

He called on "the free people of the world" to help initiate the first phase of Gaza’s reconstruction - clearing the rubble - saying this would "restore the dignity of the martyrs buried beneath it".

At the same vigil, Abu Salman al-Mughni, head of Gaza’s Higher Council for Tribal Affairs, urged all parties to act without "double standards" and to "work urgently to recover the bodies of Palestinian martyrs alongside the efforts to retrieve the remains of Israeli captives".

"As Muslims, we believe death is a certainty," al-Mughni said, "but it is unjust that the remains of our martyrs lie swallowed by the debris, without the ability to bid them farewell or bury them properly".

Testimonies from families of the missing described the anguish of not knowing the fate of their loved ones. Shahd al-Shawa said Gaza’s people now "ask not only about the living, but also about those still under the debris - without farewell and without graves".

"These are not statistics, but entire families and children deprived even of a final goodbye,” she said, adding that "Gaza today asks for little more than a measure of humanity".

Israeli authorities continue to block the entry of heavy machinery into Gaza to remove rubble and recover bodies. Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli ban violates the humanitarian protocol of the ceasefire agreement, which allows the entry of "hundreds of needed machines".

While Israel has reportedly allowed equipment to enter Gaza to locate the remains of its captives, al-Thawabta said this has been done "while ignoring the thousands of Palestinians still buried beneath the ruins".

Gaza's health ministry said that since 11 October, the day after the ceasefire took effect, 513 bodies of Palestinians killed in the streets were recovered.