Civil Defence crews in Gaza began recovering the bodies of 13 Palestinians on Tuesday from beneath the rubble of a multi-storey home destroyed by an Israeli strike during the early days of the war.
The operation is being carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the home of the Gharbiya family in the Al Katiba area west of Gaza City.
Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Anadolu that a large number of Palestinians were killed in the strike. Some bodies were recovered at the time, while 13 remain beneath the rubble.
The victims include women, children and the elderly, he said.
Basal warned that severe shortages of heavy machinery, equipment, fuel and protective gear continue to hamper efforts to recover thousands of Palestinians believed to remain beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza.
“If we remain in this situation, we are talking about many years” to complete the recovery operations, he said, adding that adequate equipment and resources could reduce the process to a matter of months.
Basal said Civil Defence crews are working with extremely limited resources and at times “with their bare hands,” without adequate protective equipment while handling bodies, human remains and debris.
He said crews continue their work without salaries, bonuses or compensation and called on the international community, international organisations and human rights groups to provide the heavy machinery and logistical support needed to continue recovery operations.
Tuesday’s operation is part of the second phase of a Civil Defence project launched on July 19 to recover Palestinians buried beneath buildings destroyed during the Israeli war.
The 800-hour phase covers 147 destroyed homes across Gaza City and northern and central Gaza, where 1,072 bodies are believed to remain beneath the rubble, according to Basal.
During the first phase, launched in November 2025, crews recovered 333 bodies and human remains from 54 destroyed homes and buildings. Limited resources prevented them from reaching around 226 others.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said in October 2025 that around 9,500 Palestinians had been reported missing since the start of the Israeli war, including those believed to remain beneath the rubble and others whose fate remains unknown.
The Israeli army continues to target Palestinians in several areas of Gaza despite an Israel-Hamas ceasefire that went into effect on October 10 2025. The ceasefire violations have killed at least 1,258 Palestinians and injured 4,139 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and injured over 174,000. The war has also caused widespread destruction, affecting 90 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure.
