‘My heart is broken’: Palestinians begin searching the Gaza rubble for their dead. Using manual tools and their bare hands, people start the immense task of trying to find their loved ones’ remains

The destruction left by Israel’s offensive on Gaza City. Photograph: Amjed Tantesh/The Guardian

 Seham Tantesh in Gaza and William Christou in Jerusalem

Sun 12 Oct 2025

Ghali Khadr spent two days pleading with his parents to flee with him to southern Gaza, warning them that it was too dangerous to stay. His father, known for being stubborn, refused. Their argument was never finished – an Israeli airstrike hit his father’s home, burying his parents beneath the rubble.

On Sunday, two days after the ceasefire was announced, Khadr returned to search through the ruins of his parents’ home. He spent the day sifting through shattered concrete and twisted metal for any sign of them. All he managed to find were some shards of their skulls and parts of their hands.

“My father, a retired ambulance driver, was known for his strong will and patience. He did not know fear and was always optimistic,” said Khadr, 40, of Jabaliya in northern Gaza.

Khadr took the remains of his parents to the graveyard, but found that it too had been destroyed. He decided to bury them next to the few graves that were still intact. 

Like Khadr, thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza since Friday’s ceasefire with a grim task ahead of them: searching for loved ones killed weeks or months earlier in Israeli airstrikes and whose bodies are buried under the rubble.

Gaza’s civil defence agency estimates that the bodies of about 10,000 people are trapped under the debris and collapsed buildings. The halt in the fighting has given the ambulance service the chance to finally start the search for the dead and give their families a chance at closure.

The task ahead of the rescuers is immense given an estimated 60m tonnes of rubble across the territory.

Most roads have been destroyed or blocked by debris. Civil defence workers are short of heavy equipment and have to use pickaxes and sledgehammers to break through collapsed buildings. Rescue crews have to move slowly. The debris is also full of unexploded bombs and ordnance.

“At first, we are focusing on... " READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/12/my-heart-is-broken-palestinians-begin-searching-the-gaza-rubble-for-their-dead?CMP=share_btn_url

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