{"id":643807,"date":"2026-10-12T05:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643807\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:20:12","slug":"buried-bodies-cleared-rubble-israels-yellow-line-how-war-is-hampering-the-search-for-gazas-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643807\/","title":{"rendered":"Buried bodies, cleared rubble, Israel\u2019s yellow line: How war is hampering the search for Gaza\u2019s missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Dusk had fallen in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya when an Israeli quadcopter broke the evening lull on November 1, 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\n That evening, Mohammad Yousef Shalayel had settled into his in-laws\u2019 home with his wife and children \u2013 after visiting 16 relatives displaced at his parents\u2019 house nearby. He didn\u2019t know that would be the last time they saw each other.\n <\/p>\n

\n An \u201cenormous explosion\u201d rocked the area, \u201ccompletely collapsing\u201d the Shalayel house. When Shalayel returned to the site of the attack the next morning, \u201call four floors had fallen on top of one another, on the people who were inside,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Among them were his elderly mother, his two brothers and his sister, and their children and in-laws, too.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI will never forget\u2026 I found dismembered remains of children and women,\u201d he told CNN in late September. \u201cI broke down, but I tried to hold myself together so that I could gather the pieces of flesh that were scattered around.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Nearly two years later, Shalayel has been unable to return because the Israeli military has since occupied more than half of the shattered territory. He says almost all his family members remain unaccounted for.\n <\/p>\n

\"Mohammad<\/p>\n

\n Amid the ruins of Gaza, Palestinians say they are trying to survive a conflict with no clear end in sight.\n <\/p>\n

\n Three years after Hamas and other militant groups killed around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023 \u2013 and a year after a US-brokered ceasefire was supposed to end the ensuing war in Gaza \u2013 Israeli strikes remain a near daily occurrence. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 74,000 people have been killed in the coastal enclave during the Israeli offensive. And the number may still rise significantly.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some 8,000 people are reported missing, according to Gaza\u2019s Civil Defense, most of whom are likely buried beneath what the United Nations estimated last year to be 61 million tonnes of rubble<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n And with each day that passes, the chances of identifying the dead grow slimmer as \u201ccrucial evidence\u201d is lost, said Pat Griffiths, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under international humanitarian law, the parties to an armed conflict \u201chave an obligation to conduct search and recovery work\u201d for the remains of those killed, missing or injured, and to collect, preserve and transfer that information to the other side, Griffiths told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under the October 2025 ceasefire plan, Israeli forces were instructed to withdraw to the \u201cyellow line,\u201d which demarcated occupied areas. That shifting demarcation zone<\/a> has blocked Palestinians from accessing swathes of land where their loved ones could be buried under the rubble, residents and aid workers say.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several people in Jabalya told CNN they witnessed the Israeli military demolishing mosques, homes and buildings or clearing rubble near the yellow line.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhere are the bones of our loved ones?\u201d asked one resident, Yahya Odeh. \u201cWhere are their bodies? There are entire families beyond the yellow line who have been separated from their relatives.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In September, the UN human rights chief, Volker T\u00fcrk, warned against<\/a> the clearance of rubble in areas under Israeli military control \u201cby bulldozers with no respect for the dead,\u201d after Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based NGO, reported<\/a> that such activity could erase evidence of war crimes.\n <\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/p>\n

\n T\u00fcrk said the recovery of \u201cwhat appears to be entire families\u201d from under the rubble in areas accessible to Palestinians highlights the need for evidence of possible war crimes to be preserved, and called for international investigators to be given access to all of Gaza.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Israel\u2019s restrictions on heavy machinery entering Gaza have prolonged recovery efforts in parts of the enclave where Israeli troops are not currently present, Palestinian officials say.\n <\/p>\n

\n In August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a 15-point plan laying out a pathway to long-term stability in Gaza, insisting Israel\u2019s forces would not withdraw \u201cuntil Hamas is genuinely disarmed.\u201d The militant group in turn demanded that the Israeli military stop striking Gaza and pull back to the yellow line, as set out in the ceasefire plan<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last year, an independent UN inquiry found Israel<\/a> has committed genocide in Gaza, a finding rejected by the Israeli government.\n <\/p>\n

\n In parts of Gaza accessible to Palestinians, Civil Defense members scour bombed-out homes for the remains of missing people.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since last October, field crews have recovered around 1,000 bodies from the rubble, according to Mahmoud Basal, the Civil Defense spokesperson. But only one excavator is available in Gaza City, with another in central Gaza, said Basal, adding that operations could be \u201ccompleted\u201d if Israeli authorities were to provide the 10 excavators, 10 bulldozers and 30 trucks requested by Palestinian officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Israeli aid agency tasked with facilitating the entry of aid into Gaza, COGAT, said Israel has allowed in \u201cessential equipment\u201d including engine oil, medical supplies and tents. However, COGAT insisted authorities would withhold heavy machinery and reconstruction materials until Hamas disarmed, according to Reuters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Recovery efforts are made more dangerous by the presence of unexploded ordnance, said Griffiths. Many rescue workers are \u201cliterally scraping away, a few centimeters at a time,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n When they do find buried Palestinians, some show signs of having been eaten by rodents or stray dogs<\/a>, said Basal. Shalayel told CNN how he wrapped a blanket around his brother\u2019s arm, which protruded from the rubble of their parents\u2019 house, to try to protect it from an \u201cenormous number\u201d of roaming dogs. \u201cIt was a horrific sight,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn the end, the family tries to comfort itself by believing that all of its relatives have been recovered from beneath the rubble,\u201d Basal said. \u201cBut we cannot state (that) with certainty.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Dr. Ahmad Dheir is one of only three remaining specialist forensic doctors in the enclave, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even before the war, doctors had no access to DNA testing facilities, Dheir said, after a years-long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt limited the entry of medical supplies.\n <\/p>\n

\n The slow eradication of Gaza\u2019s medical infrastructure \u2013 following repeated Israeli strikes on health centers \u2013 has made medical workers even more reliant on elementary identification techniques, said Griffiths.\n <\/p>\n

\n When rescue teams deliver unidentified bodies to hospitals, the lack of freezer storage, fuel shortages and frequent power cuts hasten the deterioration of samples, said Dheir.\n <\/p>\n

\n With no DNA testing available, health workers have resorted to inconclusive blood typing and laboratory tests, condemning many relatives to a perpetual state of uncertainty, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Suha al-Sharif\u2019s son, Jihad, was supposed to care for his mother in old age. Instead, his absence is her only companion.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen Jihad left, I realized that he was the one carrying me. He was my strength,\u201d the 55-year-old told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jihad, 33, was shot and killed on November 9, 2023 \u2013 when the family was displaced from Gaza City, Al-Sharif said. His body was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, in the north, but Israel\u2019s intensifying attacks meant health staffers could not bury people. Again, the family were forced to flee, journeying south. Nearly three years later, Al-Sharif has not been able to find him. \u201cThe hardest thing is that I couldn\u2019t bury him; I don\u2019t know where his body is,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAt night, when I put my head on my pillow, memories come back,\u201d she added. \u201cThere is nothing left to cry for. My life feels over.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\n Her sense of dispossession reflects that of many survivors in Gaza. Palestinians whose relatives are still missing have been presenting signs of \u201cambiguous loss\u201d \u2013 a situational disorder where people feel lost, unable to concentrate, anxious, depressive or guilty, two aid workers told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some people pray, preserve photographs or loved ones\u2019 belongings to \u201ckeep their memory alive,\u201d according to Israa Alqahwaji, the mental health program coordinator in Gaza for the UK-based NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians. Wanting to find a person\u2019s body \u201creflects a very deep human need for truth,\u201d Alqahwaji said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cContinuing to live does not mean abandoning or forgetting the person they have lost,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

\n In Deir al-Balah a cemetery of the missing, as locals call it, has become a totem for the unknown fate of hundreds of Palestinians.\n <\/p>\n

\n About 1,000 unidentified people have been buried there, according to Gaza\u2019s Civil Defense. Authorities have been working with international aid agencies to build a digital information sharing system, ascribing serial numbers to unnamed graves so that if DNA testing becomes possible, loved ones may be able to identify their relatives in years to come.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe believe these people and their families have a right, as a matter of human dignity, to find their loved ones,\u201d said Dheir.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shalayel hopes that one day he will find his family and lay them to rest with dignity. \u201cFor us, the people of Gaza, there is a well-known saying: Honoring the dead means burying them. Our religion, customs and traditions teach us that when someone dies, they should be buried, and their burial place should be known.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dusk had fallen in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya when an Israeli quadcopter broke the evening lull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-643807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}