Country: occupied Palestinian territory Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Please refer to the attached files. Ajith Sunghay – Head of the UN Human Rights Office in the…
What the source says
Country: occupied Palestinian territory
Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Please refer to the attached files.
Ajith Sunghay – Head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Human remains believed to belong to 96 people from three Palestinian families have been recovered from under the rubble in Gaza City this month, around half were women and children.
One family, the Malakas, had lost 72 members in Israeli airstrikes on the family homes in November 2023. Only three bodies were recovered at the time. Remains believed to belong to 55 more members of the family were among those recovered this month. The remaining 14 family members are still missing beneath the rubble. Like many in Gaza, they may never be recovered. The sheer explosive power of heavy munitions sometimes left no recoverable remains. And it is increasingly difficult to distinguish rubble from remains as the years pass.
A survivor of the attack on the Malaka family homes told us that, for nearly three years, he felt “buried” beneath layers of grief and pain: “The pain of knowing they still lie in ruins, the pain of being unable to recover and bury them, and the ultimate pain of losing them.”
It is estimated that at least 8,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble across the strip. Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered over 800 bodies since the announcement of a ceasefire in October 2025 despite severe shortages of equipment, fuel, and personnel. At this pace, completing the recovery of the remaining bodies will take at least 10 more years. Even longer when accounting for the time needed to identify bodies, if it is ever possible.
It’s Israel’s obligation under international law to do everything possible to ensure these remains are found, identified, and buried with dignity in accordance with the families’ religious and cultural beliefs. Instead, the collective impact of Israel’s conduct is making any systematic, large-scale search, recovery, and identification effort nearly impossible.
Some families, like the Malakas, have been unable to recover the remains of their loved ones due to the lack of resources. Israeli authorities have been blocking the entry of the heavy machinery and trained personnel needed for large-scale recovery. At present, Palestinian Civil Defence teams report having only one excavator left and, at times, being forced to dig through rubble with their bare hands.
Some families in Gaza cannot reach the areas where their missing family members were killed to search for their remains. Israeli forces surround the Palestinian population in Gaza from all sides along the constantly shifting, so-called “yellow line”. Most of the territory of Gaza is now beyond the yellow line — inaccessible to Palestinians, including Civil Defence teams and families of missing persons. Reports are also mounting about Israeli soldiers removing and crushing rubble there — rubble laden with people’s remains.
Even when bodies are recovered, families are often unable to identify them. Israel has been blocking the entry of forensic and identification tools such as DNA and fingerprint kits, leaving families to identify remains by physical characteristics, or by guessing based on the location of the recovery.
If a natural disaster caused this scale of crisis, international mechanisms, deployment of specialized search and forensic teams, and massive resources to support large-scale operations of search, recovery, and identification would all be triggered. Yet the needs here, despite the human causes this time, are just as great, and I would urge similar kind of joined-up response here.
This predictably risks the loss of evidence needed to ensure every individual responsible for atrocity crimes is held to account. It also prolongs the anguish of thousands of families already living in perpetual fear, insecurity, and want. They have a right to know the fates of their children, parents, siblings, and cousins. They have a right to mourn them with dignity. And they have a right to justice.
Also read the statement by Volker Türk: "Türk says recovery of remains in Gaza three years later adds to Palestinian trauma", on missing persons in [Gaza](https://reliefweb.int/node/4231233)
Ends
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Mayy El Sheikh – mayy.elsheikh@un.org
Tag and share
Twitter @OHCHR_Palestine
Facebook UN Human Rights Palestine
Why this article appeared here
This story matched the site’s configured topics and was automatically ranked for recency, source priority, and breaking-news terms.
Read the original reporting
For the original report and any subsequent live updates, see ReliefWeb – Updates.
