GAZA CITY — Standing amidst the rubble of what was once his home, Ahmed Salim fights back tears as he tries to recover the bodies of his loved ones buried beneath tons of debris. More than 30 people, including his wife, children, mother, and father, were killed when the building was struck. Salim is the sole survivor from what used to be a five-story building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, destroyed on December 24, 2024. Since then, he has been waiting to retrieve their remains and give them a dignified burial.
Thousands of Palestinians face similar tragedies after two years of war between Israel and Hamas that devastated the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations, by late September 2024, approximately 83 percent of Gaza’s buildings were damaged or destroyed compared to pre-war levels. The territory is now covered with an estimated 61.5 million tonnes of rubble about 170 times the weight of New York’s Empire State Building.
Mahmud Bassal, Gaza’s civil defense spokesperson, estimates around 10,000 bodies remain buried under the debris, a figure extraction teams cannot handle without heavy machinery to lift collapsed roofs and cement piles. Iyad Rayan echoes Salim’s hope to recover and honor his wife and children’s remains after his home was destroyed earlier this year.
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