19 Bodies Recovered From Rubble of Destroyed Gaza Building

Rescue and civil defence teams have recovered the bodies of 19 Palestinians, most of them women and children, from the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence.

The recovery operation at the Karam building in western Gaza City lasted four consecutive days and was completed on Saturday. Officials said specialised medical teams and civil defence crews will now move to another location to continue searching for people trapped beneath the rubble.

Rescue efforts across Gaza have been severely hampered by a shortage of heavy machinery capable of lifting large concrete slabs. Civil defence workers have been forced to rely largely on basic tools and manual labour to recover bodies from destroyed buildings.

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that more than 8,000 people remain missing beneath the rubble across the territory.

The ministry said that since the ceasefire began on October 11 last year, at least 1,254 Palestinians have been killed, 4,121 wounded and 804 bodies recovered from beneath the rubble.

The overall Palestinian death toll since the war began in October 2023 has risen above 73,300, while more than 174,000 people have been wounded, according to Gaza health officials.

The latest recovery operation comes days after a mass funeral in Gaza City for 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families. Their remains were recovered from a residential building in the Sabra neighbourhood that was destroyed in an Israeli strike in November 2023.

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