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Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has orphaned at least 56,348 Palestinian children, marking the largest wave of war-related orphanhood in modern history, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza. #Infograph

🔴 Gaza Civil Defense: Thousands of Families Dig for Their Relatives Themselves; Only One Excavator Operating in Central Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud al-Basal said the file of the missing and the recovery of bodies is “one of the most difficult and most painful issues,” with thousands of Palestinians still trapped under destroyed buildings since the start of the war. He told Palestine Online that Civil Defense teams were forced in November 2023 to halt most recovery operations after Israeli forces targeted their excavators, bulldozers, and heavy machinery. This left large numbers of people under the rubble with no way to reach them. “Nearly two years have passed and people are still under the ruins,” he said. “We are talking about tens of thousands — perhaps more than 10,000 bodies still buried at the sites of destroyed buildings, including children, women, pregnant women, the elderly, and the sick.” With no equipment, thousands of families are now trying to retrieve the bodies of their relatives on their own. “Some succeed, others can’t. But the reality is that thousands of victims remain under the rubble to this day.” Al-Basal said some bodies can be identified immediately, but “there are large numbers whose identities can only be known through DNA testing.” He noted that Civil Defense has recovered hundreds of unidentified bodies in recent months. They were buried in “unknown-identity graves” in Deir al-Balah — including bodies Israel handed over without any way to determine who they were. “They were buried with numbered markers after samples were taken, and they will remain unidentified until proper genetic-testing equipment becomes available.” He described the psychological toll on families searching alone: “Imagine a father standing every day on the rubble of his home hoping to find even a trace of his child’s remains… This is Gaza’s reality today.” Al-Basal said rubble-removal and search operations remain “extremely slow” because Gaza has almost no heavy machinery. Only one excavator is currently operating in the central area; it is expected to be moved later to Gaza City and the north, but its capacity “is nowhere near enough for the scale of this catastrophe.” He said Civil Defense receives daily appeals from families asking for help locating relatives beneath collapsed buildings and warned that the slow pace will continue without adequate equipment and resources. Source: Palestine Online

Israeli soldiers in West Bank filmed shooting and killing two Palestinians after they surrender, IDF says "the incident is under review" haaretz.com/israel-news/2025…