Palestinians search for survivors and victims under the rubble of buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombing of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, November 2, 2023. Photo: AFP.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said that over 10,000 people remain buried under the rubble in the Strip, seven months into the ongoing genocidal war launched by the Israeli occupation last October.
The UN Aid Coordination Office (OCHA) stated that “with the current primitive tools available, it might require up to three years to recover the bodies,” warning that rising temperatures are expected to accelerate the decomposition of bodies, heightening the risk of disease transmission and increasing concerns about public health.
Entire residential neighborhoods and areas have been completely destroyed by “Israel” since October, the UN aid office said, noting that Gaza was bombed “from the air, land, and sea.”
The Palestinian Civil Defense said that many people are trapped under rubble and on roads inaccessible to ambulances and civil defense crews due to lack of means and equipment, in addition to the occupation preventing rescue teams from reaching victims’ positions.
The Civil Defense urged in a statement earlier this week that UN agencies and all relevant stakeholders urgently intervene to allow the entry of needed equipment, including bulldozers and excavators, to avert a public health catastrophe, facilitate dignified burials, and save the lives of injured people.
At least 5% of Gazan population killed or injured
The Health Ministry of Gaza revealed in its latest report on Friday, May 3, that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip since October 7, 2023 has now reached 34,622, with 77,867 injured.
A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on the socioeconomic situation in the Gaza Strip showed that due to the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, at least 5% of the population has either been killed or injured as of mid-April.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner underscored that “unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come.”
Gaza’s health system has collapsed
Palestinian health authorities said last month that they no longer have the capacity to count all the dead bodies in Gaza, especially with hospitals, emergency services, and communications barely functioning.
Given the difficulty in gathering data, the numbers of the dead are becoming less accurate, with numbers almost always underreported, as thousands remain unaccounted for.
Medhat Abbas, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Gaza, said, “At the beginning we had systems, we had hospitals. The Civil Defense teams were able to get people who were stuck under the rubble. Then the whole system collapsed.”
The ministry is now depending on other sources of information, such as testimonies from martyrs’ relatives, video of the aftermath of strikes, and reports by media organizations, Abbas stated.
The true picture of the human casualties due to Israel’s ongoing genocide, accompanied by the total collapse of hospitals and rescue services, will take a long time to emerge.
