Gaza authorities recover 112 bodies from rubble in Sabra
Gaza civil defence teams say they have recovered the remains of 112 people from rubble in Sabra, a neighbourhood in the south of Gaza City. The operation followed 136 hours of digging, much of it carried out by hand, after prolonged Israeli strikes in the area. The remains included children, women and people with physical disabilities, according to the agency.
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The civil defence agency said the search was supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. It said the work took place over nearly two weeks and involved teams sifting through destroyed concrete and twisted metal. A spokesperson for the Red Cross said the recovery of human remains is a critically important humanitarian issue for families who have been waiting to mourn and bury relatives.
Colonel Mohammed Abu Dan, who is in charge of the site for the civil defence agency, said 157 other bodies are still believed to be under the rubble there. He said the search has been arduous and that teams have not yet reached all of the areas where remains may still be trapped. The agency said the 112 recovered remains included 40 children, 38 women and seven people with physical disabilities.
The recovery effort underlines the scale of destruction left by the war in Gaza and the continuing difficulty of accounting for the dead. Thousands of people are still unaccounted for, many believed to be buried under rubble from air strikes. Access restrictions and the limits on independent reporting in Gaza mean the figures cannot be verified on the ground by outside media.
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The wider conflict began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,221 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. Since then, Gaza health authorities have said more than 73,300 people have been killed in the war, figures the United Nations considers reliable. The latest recovery in Sabra adds to the humanitarian toll and highlights the continuing challenge of identifying and recovering remains after prolonged fighting.
What remains unclear is how many bodies are still trapped in the Sabra area and how long the search will continue. The civil defence agency says more remains may still be found, but access and safety conditions could slow the work. The next developments to watch are whether further recoveries are announced and whether any additional support is brought in for the search operation.
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