Gaza teams recover remains of 55 people nearly 3 years after Israeli strike

The victims, all members of the Malka family, had been sheltering in the family home when it was hit by Israel in November 2023.

The bodies of Palestinians who lost their lives in Israeli air strikes are seen during a funeral ceremony in Gaza City, Palestine [File: Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu]

The remains of 55 Palestinians have been recovered from the rubble of a residential building in Gaza City destroyed in an Israeli air strike nearly three years ago, according to Gaza’s civil defence.

The recovery operation, which concluded on Saturday, marks the latest in a slow, largely manual campaign to retrieve the dead from beneath Gaza’s ruins. Such efforts are hampered by a chronic shortage of the heavy machinery needed to clear broken concrete.

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Rescue teams said the remains were found beneath the rubble of the Malka family home, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Colonel Muhammad Abu Dan, who has been supervising the rescue teams, said they had been searching for more than 60 bodies of victims from the Malka family over the past 72 hours.

Situated in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, Israeli forces struck the building on November 19, 2023, as the family members sought shelter inside after being displaced from their own homes over the course of Israel’s genocidal war , said Wafa.

According to the United Nations Satellite Centre, 82 percent of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health, along with UN agencies and aid organisations, estimate that between 10,000 and 14,000 people remain missing under rubble across the territory.

Abu Dan has called on international humanitarian organisations to provide as much equipment as possible so that his teams can recover the largest number of people possible from the rubble, as reported by Gaza’s Government Media Office.

As most of the bodies have been recovered, a joint funeral procession is expected to take place next weekend.

‘No plan’ to displace people from Gaza

The recovery operation took place after United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee , said there was no plan to force Palestinians to leave Gaza after ⁠two Israeli ministers earlier in the week floated proposals for the mass removal of people from the besieged ⁠territory.

“I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will,” Huckabee told reporters in ‌Turmus Ayya, a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Nobody is suggesting that there will be forced displacement. The Israelis are not. The Americans are certainly not. ⁠I know of no one who supports that.”

Earlier this week, Defence Minister ⁠ Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration”, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir outlined a seven-year plan for expelling Gaza’s population through what he described as “voluntary emigration”.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said hospitals in the strip received 17 bodies over the past 48 hours as well as 27 injured people, according to figures compiled from admissions.

The latest casualties included five new fatalities, one person who died from previous wounds and 11 bodies recovered from beneath debris. Additional victims remain trapped under rubble or lying in the streets, with ambulance and civil defence teams still unable to reach them, it added.

At least three Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks on Saturday, two in an Israeli attack on a beach in the al-Khalidi area, north of Gaza City, and one in a targeted attack on the al-Sudaniyya area, northwest of Gaza City.

Since the “ceasefire” took hold last October, at least 1,344 people have been killed and 4,464 injured while at least 815 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to the Health Ministry.

The overall death toll since October 2023 has risen to 73,470, with at least 174,540 injured, according to the latest available figures.

遇难者均为马尔卡家族成员，2023 年 11 月，他们在家中避难时，以色列军队袭击了他们的房屋。

在巴勒斯坦加沙城举行的葬礼仪式上，可以看到在以色列空袭中丧生的巴勒斯坦人的遗体。[图片：Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu]

据加沙民防部门称，在近三年前以色列空袭摧毁的加沙城一栋居民楼废墟中，已找到 55 名巴勒斯坦人的遗骸。

此次于周六结束的遗体搜寻行动，标志着从加沙废墟下挖掘遇难者遗体的行动又向前迈进了一步，这项行动进展缓慢，且主要依靠人工。由于长期缺乏清理破碎混凝土所需的重型机械，这项工作举步维艰。

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据巴勒斯坦瓦法通讯社报道，救援队称，遗骸是在马尔卡一家房屋的废墟下发现的。

负责指挥救援队的穆罕默德·阿布·丹上校表示，在过去的72小时里，他们一直在搜寻马尔卡家族60多名遇难者的遗体。

据瓦法通讯社报道，这栋位于宰图恩社区的房屋于 2023 年 11 月 19 日遭到以色列军队袭击，当时这家人因以色列种族灭绝战争而流离失所，正在屋内寻求庇护。

据联合国卫星中心称，加沙地带82%的建筑物在战争中被摧毁或损坏。

加沙卫生部与联合国机构和援助组织估计，该地区仍有 10,000 至 14,000 人被埋在废墟下失踪。

据加沙政府媒体办公室报道，阿布·丹呼吁国际人道主义组织提供尽可能多的设备，以便他的团队能够从废墟中救出尽可能多的人。

由于大部分遗体已被找到，预计将于下周末举行联合葬礼。

“没有计划”将加沙民众驱逐出境。

此前，两名以色列部长在本周早些时候提出了将巴勒斯坦人从被围困的加沙地带大规模迁离的提议。美国驻以色列大使迈克·赫卡比表示，目前没有计划强迫巴勒斯坦人离开加沙。随后，美国展开了此次撤离行动。

“我可以明确地告诉你们，以色列人没有任何计划违背加沙人民的意愿将他们驱逐出境，”哈克比在以色列占领的约旦河西岸城镇图尔穆斯阿亚告诉记者。

“没有人暗示会强制民众流离失所。以色列人没有，美国人当然也没有，据我所知，没有人支持这种做法。”

本周早些时候，国防部长以色列·卡茨表示，“如果不进行这种移民，加沙最终就没有真正的解决方案”，而国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔则概述了一项为期七年的计划，旨在通过他所谓的“自愿移民”来驱逐加沙居民。

与此同时，加沙卫生部表示，根据入院统计数据，过去 48 小时内，加沙地带的医院接收了 17 具尸体和 27 名伤者。

最新伤亡情况包括5名新增死亡病例、1名因先前伤势过重死亡的人员以及从废墟下挖掘出的11具遗体。声明还补充说，另有一些伤者仍被困在废墟下或躺在街道上，救护车和民防队伍仍无法抵达现场。

周六，至少有三名巴勒斯坦人在以色列的袭击中受伤，其中两人在加沙城北部哈利迪地区的海滩上遭到以色列袭击受伤，一人在加沙城西北部的苏丹尼亚地区遭到以色列的定点袭击受伤。

据卫生部统计，自去年10月“停火”生效以来，至少有1344人死亡，4464人受伤，至少有815具尸体从废墟中被找到。

根据最新公布的数据，自 2023 年 10 月以来，死亡总人数已上升至 73,470 人，至少有 174,540 人受伤。