The Palestinian Civil Defense Service said that more than 10,000 people remain missing under the rubble in Gaza since Israel commenced its attacks on October 7, 2023.
“We estimate that there are over 10,000 missing people under the rubble of hundreds of destroyed homes since the start of the (Israeli) aggression,” a statement by the Civil Defense said.
It noted that those missing people are not included in the Health Ministry death toll list, “therefore, the number of martyrs exceeds 44,000.”
Its rescue teams started to recover bodies that are completely decomposed, from under the rubble from buildings in northern Gaza, it added.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 34,500 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 77,700 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.
More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.