Remains of 19 Palestinians recovered from rubble of residential building: Gaza Civil Defense

Gaza Civil Defense on Saturday said that its teams recovered the remains of 19 Palestinians from beneath the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Gaza City after a four-day search operation.

In a statement, the Civil Defense announced the completion of search and recovery operations at the Karam residential building on al-Sinaa Street in western Gaza City.

The building was destroyed in an Israeli strike during the war on Gaza, leaving the bodies of Palestinians trapped beneath the rubble.

Mohammad Abu Dan, executive supervisor of the Civil Defense’s body recovery project, said teams had completed operations at the site after finishing search and recovery efforts.

He added that specialized teams were continuing the project’s second phase and had moved to another location in Gaza City to begin new search and recovery operations.

The operations continue as bodies remain buried beneath buildings destroyed during the war, with Civil Defense teams facing difficulties due to the scale of the destruction and a shortage of heavy equipment needed for search and recovery efforts.

The current phase is part of the second stage of the Civil Defense’s body recovery project, launched on July 19.

At the project’s launch, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said the phase would involve 800 working hours searching for an estimated 1,072 bodies believed to remain beneath the rubble of 147 destroyed homes across Gaza, North Gaza and central Gaza governorates.

Basal said the work was being carried out with “very limited” resources consisting of one excavator, one bulldozer and one truck, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

During the first phase of the project, launched in November 2025, teams recovered 333 bodies and remains from beneath 54 destroyed homes and buildings, while about 226 bodies remained unrecovered because of insufficient equipment.

The Gaza Government Media Office said in October 2025 that about 9,500 Palestinians had been reported missing since the start of the war, including people believed to remain buried under collapsed buildings and others whose fate remains unknown.

Under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, Israel was expected to allow the entry of heavy equipment needed for recovery operations. Gaza authorities and Palestinian factions say Israel has failed to do so.

The ceasefire followed two years of Israeli military operations in Gaza that, according to Palestinian authorities, killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, wounded over 174,000, and destroyed about 90% of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure. The UN has estimated reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.