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STORY: GAZA / MISSING UNDER DEBRIS
TRT: 06:31
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 20 APRIL 2025, KHAN YOUNIS CITY, GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP
1. Various shots, bulldozers and machinery removing the rubble of a destroyed house in Gaza City, searching for people missing under the debris
2. Various shots, bulldozer driver, Atef Nasr, as he works to clear the rubble in search of missing persons beneath the ruins
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Atef Nasr:
"Before the war, we were building and repairing roads. Today, as you can see, we're removing the rubble from homes to retrieve the bodies of the missing from under the debris."
4. Various shots, bulldozers and machinery removing the rubble of a destroyed house in Gaza City, searching for people missing under the debris
5. Various shots, workers and residents searching through rubble for the remains of a missing person among the ruins of a destroyed house in Gaza City
6. Various shots, the moment the remains of a missing person were recovered from under the Dahdouh family’s house, more than a year after his death in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their home
7. Various shots, members of the Dahdouh family receiving condolences after recovering the remains of their son, Omar, a year after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home.
8. Various shots, Moayad Dahdouh inspecting the site where his brother Omar’s remains were recovered
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Moayad Dahdouh:
"My brother’s body remained under the rubble for nearly a year. After the war, we tried to retrieve it, but since the building had seven floors, we couldn’t reach him without heavy machinery. We searched for a bulldozer or heavy equipment to remove the rubble and reach the ground floor, because my brother was on the ground floor, but we couldn’t reach anyone during the war. The occupation burned and destroyed all the heavy equipment—bulldozers and excavators—that could have helped recover the bodies of those trapped under the rubble."
10. Various shots, destroyed neighborhoods in Gaza City
11. Various shots, destroyed home of the Dajani family in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, where the bodies of three of their children remain buried under the rubble, and the family currently lives in the destroyed house
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ali Dajani, owner of the destroyed house:
"We were displaced near the seashore, and when we returned, we found the house destroyed, with the bodies buried beneath the rubble. We were forced to live in this house, but this is not life, it’s extremely difficult. We suffer from a lack of water and food, we suffer from everything. We don’t know what to do—God is our only support."
13. Various shots, Ali Dajani’s wife walking among the rubble of their destroyed home
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ali Dajani:
"All we want is to retrieve the bodies from under the rubble, because the dignity of the dead is in their burial. That’s what we hope for - to recover the bodies, which have now decomposed."
15. Various shots, residential neighborhoods destroyed during the war
Local reports from the Gaza Strip indicate that more than 11,000 people remain missing since the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023. Among them are individuals believed to have died under the rubble or whose fates remain unknown to this day.
The Strip is suffering from a severe shortage of equipment needed to remove debris, as most heavy machinery has been either destroyed or rendered inoperable due to a lack of fuel. According to the United Nations, around 92 per cent of homes in the Gaza Strip -equivalent to approximately 436,000 houses - have been destroyed or damaged as a result of continuous bombardment.
UN estimates suggest that removing the rubble left by the war, estimated to exceed 50 million tons, may take more than two decades given the current lack of necessary resources.
While some Palestinian families continue to return to their destroyed homes, many are forced to live atop the ruins of their houses, where the bodies of their loved ones remain buried beneath the rubble.
In Khan Younis, the Dajani family returned to their destroyed home, despite being unable to retrieve the remains of three of them from beneath the debris. Ali Dajani, a family member, said, “When we came back, we found the house destroyed and the bodies beneath the rubble. We had to live here, but this is not a life. We just want to retrieve the bodies because the dignity of the dead lies in their burial. That’s all we hope for.”
In Gaza City, the Dahdouh family was unable to retrieve the body of one of their sons for over a year, after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a seven-story building. Muayyad Dahdouh, the victim’s brother, said, “My brother’s body remained under the rubble for about a year. We couldn’t reach him until we managed to bring in a bulldozer to access the ground floor where he had been.”
Local Palestinian estimates indicate that the number of people killed in the ongoing war on Gaza from October 2023 to April 2025 has exceeded 62,000. Of those, 51,065 bodies have been recovered and taken to hospitals, while more than 11,000 remain missing.
Humanitarian organizations warn that the delay in removing rubble and recovering bodies not only causes immense suffering for the affected families but also poses a looming health and environmental catastrophe in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
