Families across Gaza are still trying to recover loved ones buried under the rubble of homes destroyed during two years of conflict. UN data estimates about 83% of prewar buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving 61.5 million tonnes of debris and, according to civil defence, roughly 10,000 bodies still trapped. Limited recoveries have been possible since the October 10 ceasefire, but bereaved relatives and rescue teams say heavy machinery and secure access are urgently needed to locate and bury the missing with dignity.
Searching for the Lost: Gaza Families Seek Loved Ones Buried Under Tonnes of Rubble
Families across Gaza are still trying to recover loved ones buried under the rubble of homes destroyed during two years of conflict. UN data estimates about 83% of prewar buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving 61.5 million tonnes of debris and, according to civil defence, roughly 10,000 bodies still trapped. Limited recoveries have been possible since the October 10 ceasefire, but bereaved relatives and rescue teams say heavy machinery and secure access are urgently needed to locate and bury the missing with dignity.
09:19 PM, 11/19/2025Conflict
Standing beside the mound of rubble that was once his home, Ahmed Salim struggles to hold back tears as he tries to recover the bodies of family members trapped beneath tonnes of concrete and twisted metal. More than 30 people died when the five‑storey building in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood was struck on December 24, 2024 — among them his wife, his children and his parents. "The only thing that matters to me is to be able to bury them," the 43‑year‑old said.
A widespread, agonising problem
After two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas that devastated the Gaza Strip, thousands of families face the same agonising wait. United Nations figures indicate that by late September about 83% of Gaza's prewar buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving an estimated 61.5 million tonnes of debris — roughly 170 times the weight of New York City's Empire State Building.
Calls for heavy machinery and access
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, estimates that roughly 10,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble. "We cannot extract thousands of bodies without heavy machinery. We need the means to lift roofs and tonnes of cement," he said, describing the search and rescue operations his organisation continues to carry out.
Relatives like 55‑year‑old Iyad Rayan echo the plea. Standing amid the ruins of his Gaza City home, he says: "My wife, my son Samir and my daughter Lana are still here under the rubble. I want to send an appeal to the whole world: help me retrieve them." Amal Abdel Aal, who now lives in southern Gaza, said the thought of scavenging animals reaching the bodies of her son and brother haunts her: "I will only find relief when I have buried them, even if only a single bone remains."
Partial recoveries, limited solace
The ceasefire that began on October 10 allowed limited recovery operations. Authorities permitted Egyptian bulldozers to enter parts of Gaza to help recover the remains of hostages under a truce arrangement, and emergency teams have been able to recover roughly 500 bodies in areas that became accessible after the partial withdrawal of forces.
Some relatives returned to devastated towns and retrieved remains by hand. Amer Abu al‑Tarabish described returning to Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and pulling the bodies of his parents from the family home "with my bare hands." He said he recovered about thirty relatives who had been trapped under rubble for more than a year and was "overwhelmed by sadness, loss and pain."
Dignity, uncertainty and unfinished rites
Many families fear they will never receive that small consolation. Bassal noted that thousands are still reported missing after mass displacements and shifting frontlines: "We don't know whether they were killed or arrested." During the fighting, families sometimes performed hurried burials that they now view as temporary and vow to reopen to perform proper rites.
Mohammed Naim, 47, described having to bury 43 relatives in seven graves, placing multiple family members together. "We swore over their graves that we would exhume them and rebury them, with dignity, in Gaza City," he said.
The human cost of the wider conflict remains stark: the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel killed 1,221 people, while Gaza's health ministry reports more than 69,500 Palestinian deaths during the subsequent military campaign — figures the United Nations regards as reliable. For many families, the search for proper burials is now a desperate effort to preserve memory and dignity amid immense destruction.