Published On 7/6/2026
Gaza – Above the rubble of his destroyed house in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Yousef Al-Zaharna stood with great hope that he would be able to remove the rubble and extract the fourth martyr from among his sons to bury him next to his brothers, benefiting from a project implemented by the Civil Defense in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross to remove the rubble and extract the bodies of the martyrs.
Civil defense crews in Gaza began implementing the second phase of the project to recover the bodies of martyrs from under the rubble of homes destroyed by the Israeli war of genocide.
This phase is scheduled to last 400 working hours, in an attempt to reach thousands of missing persons whose bodies are still under the rubble, amid a severe shortage of heavy equipment and capabilities necessary for search operations, while rescue teams work manually in locations that are difficult for machines to reach.
3 were buried and the fourth remained
Regarding the details of what happened to his family, Al-Zaharna told Al-Jazeera that they were inside the house when the occupation bombed it, and that 4 of his sons and 2 of their friends were martyred there, and they were all taken out except one of his sons.
He added, “We were trying to get them out, but Israeli planes were flying and bombing, and when we returned the next morning, the bombing was continuing, and the civil defense capabilities were non-existent, and the work depended on personal effort and hands. We continued for a week to get the rest of the martyrs out, while my fourth son Moataz remained under the rubble, and we hope to God that we can get him out now.”
Regarding his feelings in light of his inability to remove his son, Al-Zaharna explained that it is “a very difficult feeling, and words cannot describe it,” asking: What does it mean to remain “a piece of your soul and your heart, and you are unable to reach it and take it out for burial as a simple matter of human rights?”
He added that he was a little relieved when his sons were taken out and buried, but a great pain remained in his heart as he was unable to bring out his fourth son, who has the right to “have a grave. This is an indescribable feeling.”
Efforts with minimal capabilities
What the Civil Defense is implementing is a great hope for the citizen Al-Zaharna and many like him who lost their children and whose bodies are still under rubble and are searching for someone to extend a helping hand to them.
The Director of Civil Defense in the Gaza Governorate, Brigadier General Raed Al-Dahshan, says that they have begun the second phase of the project to recover bodies, and that they are doing “very strenuous and significant work in light of the absence of equipment and the lack of a horizon for supplying heavy equipment to the Civil Defense apparatus.”
Therefore, “we had to agree with some international institutions, such as the Red Cross, to be able to provide heavy equipment and search under the rubble.”
He stressed that they are working with one mechanism, and that their crews deployed in the place to complete the work lack heavy equipment and personal protective equipment, and therefore there is a very large deficit and obstacles to the work. He called on the world to provide them with the necessary equipment like other countries. He continued, “If some heavy equipment were found in other places and this work was divided, we would have finished it.”
Al-Dahshan pointed out that they deal with reports received from the families of the martyrs, and that they have a table to identify all those missing under the rubble and work to bring them out. They also have an operations room to respond to citizens’ calls and distresses, adding, “We work in very difficult, harsh and complex conditions, and citizens are demanding the release of their children.”
Thousands of missing people
For his part, the Director of Media in the Civil Defense in Gaza Governorate, Abdullah Al-Majdalawi, appreciated the efforts made in exhuming the bodies within this project.
He told Al Jazeera: “We are in the house of the Ghabboun family, which was bombed in October 2023, and 45 martyrs were killed in the massacre. Civil defense crews were able to extract most of them, and 9 martyrs remained.”
Data circulated from various parties, especially the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, indicate that about 8,500 citizens are still missing in Gaza under rubble estimated at 61 million tons, according to the government media office in the Strip. The Ministry of Health confirms that the number of martyrs exceeded 73,000 during 1,000 days of war.
