A day after the ceasefire began in Gaza, the displaced people return to Rafah. The border town is a shell of its former self, with many of the buildings in ruins and the remains of the victims still lying beneath the rubble.
Instead of bodies, white bags are filled with clothing, bones and strands of hair – anything families can find to help with identification. Sometimes the word “unknown” is written on the bag in blue marker. These souls are buried without names or loved ones to claim them.
Zaki Shaqafa on Monday searched the remains recovered from the rubble for his nephew Abdul Salam Al-Mughair. When he pulled up a photo of his 26-year-old nephew on his phone, he recognized a shoe – gray with dark blue triangles on the sides. Shaqafa pointed to the design and confirmed that it belonged to his nephew.
“We lost him about five months ago,” he told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “And that confirmed that this martyr is part of our family.”
Nearby, Ibrahim Solayeh, an imam at the mosque, pleaded with civilians to come to the European Hospital to identify bodies and help bury them.
“These bodies have been lying on the streets and under the rubble for a long time,” he told El Saife. “(They) have reached the point of bone and decay.”
The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday after more than 15 months of relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, began with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons.
An estimated 10,000 bodies under rubble
Solayeh said he received 50 bodies recovered on Monday, half of which had been identified.
Many are still lying under the rubble in the Gaza Strip.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 15-month war, according to the region’s health ministry. Due to the chaos of war, determining the exact number of victims was a challenge and is subject to close scrutiny.
A peer-reviewed study published in The lancet on January 9th suggest that the official figures may be significantly underestimated. As of June 30, 2024, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported 37,877 deaths; The study estimated the number was probably around 64,200 at the time.
Palestinian Civil Defense said it was searching for an estimated 10,000 bodies believed to lie under the rubble.
Haitham Al-Hams, a rescue worker with the Palestinian Civil Defense, said the agency received more than 100 calls on Monday about decomposing bodies being uncovered under the rubble.
“This is a daily civil defense mission,” Al-Hams told CBC News on Monday.
Extent of destruction a “big shock”
At least 2,840 bodies had decomposed without any trace of them remaining, Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said on Monday.
Mohamed Gomaa, who was displaced and lost his brother and nephew in the war, said the scale of destruction in Gaza was a “big shock”.
“The number of people are shocked by what has happened to their homes – it is destruction, total destruction,” Gomaa said.
“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no, no. What happened is a war of annihilation.”
Hopeful Palestinians want to rebuild the coastal enclave that was destroyed by the Israeli military after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to Israeli information, 1,200 people were killed in this attack and around 250 were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip.
Debris clearance could take 21 years: report
According to reports, rebuilding the Gaza Strip will cost billions of dollars given the extent of the destruction caused by Israeli bombings.
A UN damage assessment released this month found that clearing over 50 million tonnes of debris left after the bombing of Israel could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.
According to a UN report last year, rebuilding Gaza’s destroyed homes could take at least until 2040 but could take many decades.
The rubble is also believed to be contaminated with asbestos. Some of the refugee camps destroyed during the war are known to have been built with the material.
A UN Development Program official said on Sunday that development in Gaza had been set back 69 years by the conflict.
While the ceasefire appeared to be largely observed on Monday, medics said eight people were hit by Israeli fire in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it “fired warning shots against suspects who approached the deployed troops,” according to the ceasefire agreement.
