Gaza Civil Defence staff prepare to transfer dozens of returned Palestinian bodies for burial
In the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Gaza Civil Defence teams are preparing to transfer dozens of bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel for burial.
“These are 50 bodies – unidentified, unfortunately,” Civil Defence worker Mohammad Abu al-Qumsan told Al Jazeera, standing before the shrouded bodies laid on the ground.
“Now we’re preparing ourselves to transfer [them] to Deir el-Balah in a mass grave.”
The bodies were among those returned from Israel under the ceasefire agreement. Families have been searching for their loved ones among the deceased, but many of the bodies are unrecognisable – displaying signs of torture and mutilation.
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Medical workers carry the bodies of unidentified Palestinians returned from Israel ahead of their burial
Families of missing Palestinians desperate for help to recover bodies from Gaza’s rubble
At least 9,000 Palestinians are recorded as missing, trapped under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
Their families are struggling. They’ve been calling throughout the war for heavy machinery to help retrieve the bodies of their loved ones. People have been digging with shovels, minimal tools, even their bare hands to try to recover their bodies.
Now that heavy machinery has entered Gaza to aid the recovery of the bodies of captives, it has raised a lot of questions for these Palestinian families.
They are asking: Are we going to be able to use this machinery? Are they going to help us retrieve the bodies of our loved ones once they recover the bodies of the captives?
But their hopes are not high. They are expecting that this machinery will be used to retrieve the captives, then be removed from Gaza.
Palestinian Civil Defence slams ‘double standards’ over recovering bodies in Gaza
The spokesperson of the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza has lambasted the “double standards” being shown by some organisations that he says are bringing heavy equipment into the Strip to search for the bodies of Israeli captives while ignoring those of tens of thousands of Palestinians that still need to be retrieved.
“It breaks our hearts that some agencies and organisations have brought in the necessary heavy powerful equipment and bulldozers only to search for the bodies of Israeli hostages while no equipment is available for 10,000 bodies of Palestinian citizens to be recovered from under the rubble,” Mahmud Basal said.
“This represents a double standard that in no way reflects humanity. True humanity requires the same care to be given to Palestinian bodies as is given to Israeli bodies.”
Basal said the retrieval of a single body can take 12 hours of work, given the scale of the devastation in Gaza.
“I think we need 10,000 days to recover the bodies of 10,000 martyrs. This means that we need a very large amount of heavy equipment. … The trucks, bulldozers and excavators that have entered the Strip are nowhere near sufficient to carry out our task,” he said.
He added that the retrieval of bodies was complicated by the issue of where to put the sheer mass of rubble.
“If the rubble is removed, where will we take it and where will we put it? Is the issue just about recovering the bodies, or is it also about recovering the bodies, removing the rubble and finding places to put it?” he asked.
“The issue requires the integration and cooperation of all parties, so that we can immediately start working on this and recover the bodies of the martyrs.”
The bodies of dozens of unidentified Palestinians returned by Israel as part of the ceasefire are buried in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Many of the bodies are unrecognisable and display signs of torture and mutilation, medical staff say.
