Despite these challenges, civil defense teams have managed to recover the bodies of 35,000 people, although around 10,000 remain trapped under the rubble.
At least 82 civil defense personnel have been killed and over 720 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, the Civil Defense Agency said on Sunday.
In a statement, the agency reported that its facilities and vehicles have been consistently targeted by the Israeli military during its offensive on the Palestinian enclave.
The agency accused Israel of “deliberately hindering humanitarian efforts aimed at saving lives and protecting civilians.”
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Despite these challenges, civil defense teams have managed to recover the bodies of 35,000 people, although around 10,000 remain trapped under the rubble, the agency noted.
It further highlighted that fuel shortages and continued Israeli attacks are severely limiting the ability of civil defense teams to respond to thousands of emergency calls.
“Around 2,210 bodies have disappeared from cemeteries across the Gaza Strip,” the agency stated, without providing further details.
The agency also reported that Israel’s dropping of approximately 85,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip has resulted in the destruction of over 80% of urban infrastructure and 90% of the general infrastructure.
It warned that “around 17% of these ordnances remain unexploded.”
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,099 Palestinians have been killed, and 92,609 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
