8,000 Bodies Still Trapped Under Rubble in Gaza

(MENAFN) An estimated 8,000 Palestinian bodies remain entombed beneath the rubble blanketing the Gaza Strip, with less than 1% of debris cleared following Israel's two-year military campaign on the enclave, according to an Israeli media report citing a senior UN official.

Haaretz, attributing its findings to an unnamed official from the UN Development Programme, reported that the catastrophically slow pace of debris removal could stretch the full clearance effort to as long as seven years. Thousands of families across the territory continue to await the recovery and burial of loved ones still buried beneath the wreckage of collapsed buildings, the official added.

The figures draw on data compiled by Palestinian civil defense authorities, who have sounded urgent alarms over critical shortages in heavy equipment and operational capacity — bottlenecks that are severely hampering efforts to work through the staggering scale of destruction.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued to breach a ceasefire agreement reached last October on a daily basis, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which recorded 828 Palestinians killed and 2,342 wounded since the truce was signed. The ceasefire was intended to bring a definitive end to a two-year offensive that has left more than 72,000 dead and 172,000 injured, while reducing an estimated 90% of the enclave's civilian infrastructure to rubble.

The UN has put the cost of rebuilding Gaza at approximately $70 billion — a figure that underscores the magnitude of the reconstruction challenge facing the devastated territory.

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