You don't just clear away broken concrete when there's an entire neighborhood flattened into dust. Gaza Civil Defence crews recently wrapped up a grueling three-day operation in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, pulling the remains of 55 people from the ruins of the Malka family home.
The strike happened way back on November 19, 2023. It took nearly three years for rescue workers to reach what was left of the building.
If you are wondering why recoveries take this long, the answer comes down to basic logistics and blocked borders. Colonel Mohammad Abu Dan and his team had to search manually for more than 60 missing members of the Malka family. They don't have the heavy machinery required to lift massive concrete slabs. Critical equipment stays locked out because entry restrictions block bulldozers, cranes, and modern extraction tools.
International aid groups and United Nations agencies estimate that between 10,000 and 14,000 people remain missing under the debris across the entire Gaza Strip. The United Nations Satellite Centre reports that a staggering 82 percent of buildings have been completely destroyed or damaged. Rescuers are racing against time. The International Committee of the Red Cross warns that ongoing delays in body recovery increase the likelihood that many victims will never be identified.
Families held a massive joint funeral procession for around 100 recovered victims, laying loved ones to rest with traditional flags and flowers. Yet, hundreds of similar sites await attention. Teams are targeting 147 destroyed homes under a local recovery project aiming to find an estimated 1,072 bodies. Another major operation has kicked off at the Engineers' Tower in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where roughly 150 people are believed buried beneath ruins left by an airstrike nearly three years ago.
Stop thinking of these recoveries as isolated events. They represent a grinding, everyday battle against missing equipment, broken infrastructure, and an overwhelming volume of destruction. Until heavy machinery is allowed past checkpoints, thousands of families will continue waiting years for closure.
