Gaza's 'shadow death toll': Buried, missing, trapped under the rubble
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Gaza's death toll, currently surpassing 31,000 martyrs, excludes the thousands of missing people buried beneath the rubble.
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Palestinians look at a residential building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 20, 2024 (AP)
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the occupation committed 7 massacres in 24 hours, killing 72 and injuring 114. This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7 to 32,142, in addition to 74,412 injuries.
It is noteworthy that numerous victims remain trapped under the rubble, presumed dead, as "Israel" prevents ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them.
Gaza's "shadow death toll" consists of Palestinians trapped beneath the rubble and missing persons since October 7. Last updated, the number stood at 7,000 people in November. Since then, experts estimate that thousands more have been added to the toll.
'Not bodies, but ashes'
Testimonies reported by the New York Times paint a grim picture of what survivors of the occupation's brutal attacks have to endure during the brief moments of silence when "Israel" does not drop its bombs on civilians, schools, residential buildings, and protective shelters.
The NYT reported incidents when men rushed to dig out their families from underneath the rubble when even bulldozers failed due to the amount of debris piled over.
In between airstrikes and raids, small groups of rescue teams head to large piles of rubble that have accumulated more and more debris over the past six months, to try to find any survivors. Most of the time, what is found are the bodies of the martyrs killed by "Israel" days, weeks, and months ago.
In November, Salem Qassem told the NYT that his family had been stuck under the rubble of their home in Beit Hanoun for forty days. He added that if the debris were to be lifted, he would only find their ashes.
This also comes as a result of "Israel's" blockade on Gaza, which prohibited the entrance of heavy machinery that is typically used after an earthquake to lift the residues of rubble. This leaves Gaza with no way to lift all the destruction when many of its towns and neighborhoods have been pulverized.
Ahmed Abu Shehab, a civil defense worker, said that only two excavators exist in Gaza. However, due to the magnitude of destruction, rescuers and civilians have been relying on shovels, drills, or their own hands.
He recalled an incident when a three-story building had been targeted and destroyed, and by the time the excavator was able to reach the ground level to pull out Palestinians who were inside it, they had all died.
Breaking: Horrifying footage captures the Israeli occupation army's bombing of Al-Helu Hospital, situated nust meters away from the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, earlier today. Patients and the injured are seen emerging from the rubble, their rooms collapsed around them! pic.twitter.com/8fGospS5IC
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) March 23, 2024
Read more: Search for Hind comes to tragic end; found dead amid pile of bodies
IOF deliberately prevent rescue teams from mobilizing
The Ministry of Health in Gaza consistently reiterates that "Israel" prevents rescue teams and ambulances from reaching the locations of the occupation's raids, leaving the martyred and the injured on the streets for days and more.
Since mid-November, calls coming from northern Gaza and Gaza City, where Israeli occupation forces are intensively stationed, have flooded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to inform them of trapped, missing, injured, and killed Palestinians and ask for their assistance. However, Nebal Fesakh, a spokesperson for the PRCS, said there was nothing they could do because the IOF would not permit their mobilizations.
“Unfortunately, we just felt helpless because we were completely denied access to those areas,” she said. “Thousands of people are still stuck under the rubble, and now they’ve most probably died because it’s been so long.”
Moreover, PRCS announced two weeks ago that fourteen of its employees, whose current whereabouts are unknown, have been kidnapped and detained by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on X, the PRCS noted that "The Israeli occupation continues to detain 14 PRCS members, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Their families and colleagues are deeply concerned for their safety, as there are reports of torture and humiliation based on testimonies from released colleagues."
