Human Rights Observatory: More than 10,000 missing under Gaza rubble

Gaza – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported on Friday that its estimates indicate that there are more than 10,000 Palestinians missing under the rubble in the Gaza Strip.

There is no way to find them because they cannot be recovered or because they are left in unmarked graves, while there is no international humanitarian movement to help recover them.

He explained that the families of the missing victims under the destroyed buildings face enormous challenges in retrieving the bodies, and the lack of equipment and heavy machinery for the civil defense crews, in addition to the Israeli ban on the entry of any equipment or fuel into the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented repeated patterns of the Israeli approach of preventing and obstructing the recovery of Palestinian victims and missing persons from under the rubble of homes, including the repeated targeting of civil defense crews and families trying to recover bodies.

He stated that the majority of the bodies of victims recovered in Israeli military attacks were either in the streets or in simple one- or two-story buildings, while there are great difficulties in retrieving bodies from under multi-story buildings.

He pointed out that the Israeli approach of preventing and obstructing the retrieval of victims is a major reason for the spread of serious diseases and epidemics in the Gaza Strip, at a time when the vast majority of the bodies have decomposed, adding further risks to the public health of the population.