Thousands are missing under the rubble of the Gaza Strip, no international action

Palestinian Territory – More than 10,000 Palestinian men and women are missing under the rubble in the Gaza Strip. There is no way to recover them or properly bury their remains. This is a blatant violation of international law and the international community is doing nothing to assist in their recovery.

Recovering the bodies of victims of Israel’s deadly and destructive military attacks on civilians for nearly ten months will be extremely difficult, as civil defense teams lack heavy machinery and equipment and their work is difficult. Moreover, the Israeli army has deliberately and systematically attacked and destroyed this machinery and equipment, while preventing any replacement equipment from entering the Gaza Strip.

In addition to the targeted use of weapons with enormous destructive power that leave tons of rubble behind, making the recovery and rescue of bodies difficult, Israel has a pattern of systematic operations to prevent and obstruct the recovery of victims and missing persons from under the rubble, as documented by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. These operations include targeted attacks on civil defense crews, rescue teams and families attempting to recover the bodies of victims, as well as preventing the entry of fuel needed to operate the remains of the heavy machinery and preventing the entry of equipment.

Ms. Maryam Imad, 19, informed the Euro-Med Monitor team that on December 7, 2023, two of her family’s houses in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, were bombed by Israeli warplanes. Among the 36 people inside were her parents, two of her brothers, one of whom is a child, as well as her grandfather, her uncles, their wives and their children.

She added: “After more than 42 days of not hearing anything, we finally realized that Israeli bombings had killed all the people buried under the rubble. In early April last year, I, the only survivor of my family, tried to recover the bodies with my two uncles, but we were unable to free any of them.

“The next day, the civil protection arrived and managed to recover some bodies, while the rest were buried under the rubble. We have not been able to bury them yet because we lack the necessary equipment, and we continue to demand their recovery, although I realize that they have decomposed over the course of several months. We want to bury their remains with dignity,” she said.

According to Wissam Al-Sakani’s report to the Euro-Med Monitor team, Israeli warplanes bombed his family home, which consisted of five apartments in the Beit Lahia district of the northern Gaza Strip, on November 22, 2023. The incident killed about 45 people, including two of his children.

Al-Sakani said that despite weeks of efforts to recover the victims, 15 of them remain under the rubble and that their recovery is hampered by the enormous amount of rubble, lack of equipment and frequent bombings of the area.

Ahmed Al-Bahnasawy informed the Euro-Med Monitor team that on October 31, 2023, Israeli warplanes bombed his house within a belt of fire targeting a residential area in Haret Al-Sanaida in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, which includes about 40 houses.

About 400 people, including all 18 members of Al-Bahnasawy’s family, were killed in the massive Israeli attack, he said. Dozens of bodies were dug up over the course of several weeks, but due to a lack of equipment and the extent of the destruction, about 50 people remained under the rubble and could not be recovered.

Most of the bodies were found in simple one- or two-story buildings or on the street. However, recovering bodies from the basements of multi-story buildings is very difficult because civil defense and rescue teams have to rely on outdated tools, hand hammers and outdated technology when searching for victims among tens of thousands of tons of rubble, making their work less efficient.

Given the urgent need to clear the rubble, locate the bodies and recover them using special procedures to identify them and bury them in marked graves, and to ensure the right of the victims and their families to a respectful and appropriate burial in accordance with their religious rituals, international pressure must be applied to compel Israel to comply with its legal obligations and provide trucks, special equipment and sufficient fuel.

Since most of the victims’ bodies have already decomposed, Israel’s policy of obstructing and thwarting their recovery contributes significantly to the spread of deadly diseases and epidemics in the Gaza Strip. This increases the risks to the health of the civilian population, which is already at risk as Israel endangers the health and well-being of over two million Palestinians, almost half of whom are children. In addition, Israel destroys vital civilian infrastructure, cuts off fuel supplies for sewage treatment, makes waste disposal impossible and forces people to drink contaminated water.

Preventing or obstructing the recovery of victims’ bodies from the rubble is a blatant and multiple violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. It is a violation of the right to investigation, redress and compensation, as well as the ultimate right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect when their bodies are buried. Furthermore, the fact that thousands of Palestinians are still missing is another crime against their families, who are suffering terrible psychological injuries. These violations are all part of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which will have a significant negative impact on thousands of Palestinian families in the region, causing them great spiritual and psychological harm.

Since these violations constitute the deliberate concealment of evidence related to the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, preventing the recovery of bodies also violates the International Court of Justice’s rulings regarding the need to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip and to protect civilians.

The fact that so many victims are still buried under the rubble and that attempts to exhume bodies have been unsuccessful for months shows that Israel is deliberately using various types of bombs and munitions, as well as massive and disproportionate force, against Palestinian civilians and their property, in violation of international humanitarian law, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which aims to protect civilians in times of war.

Palestinian bodies must be recovered immediately after death, as the current state of these decomposing corpses poses a threat to public safety. The spread of epidemics, which has already begun and has been observed for several months, will have further harmful effects on the environment and the public, as evidenced by the frequently reported infections and deaths resulting from infectious diseases. These conditions will also seriously endanger the environmental health of the Strip in the long term and lead to environmental degradation and even ecocide, rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for human settlement.

Israel is obliged under international law to follow certain rules, including protecting and respecting the bodies of the dead during armed conflict. Israel must also take all reasonable steps to ensure that the dead are treated with dignity and that mutilation of bodies is prevented. The international community must work together to ensure that Israel immediately ceases its military attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip and is held accountable for all its crimes.