Monday marked the second day of the ceasefire in Gaza, and Palestinians began the work of digging through the rubble in search of the 10,000 bodies that are estimated to be buried under the buildings that were destroyed by Israel’s bombing campaign.
“We are searching for 10,000 martyrs whose bodies remain under the rubble,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, told Reuters. Basal said at least 2,840 bodies were melted, and there were no traces of them.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that 97 bodies were found in the destroyed southern city of Rafah. Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update that hospitals received 122 bodies in the previous 24 hours, including 62 who were dug out of the rubble.
The ministry said that the death toll since October 2023 has reached 47,035, and the number of wounded had climbed to 111,091. The ministry counts dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals, meaning each body dug out of the rubble will be added to its death toll.
A recent study published by The Lancet found the Health Ministry’s death toll was a significant undercount, likely by 41%, and the true number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military is likely over 70,000. The number doesn’t include indirect deaths caused by the siege and the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, two Palestinian civilians, including a teenage boy, were killed by IDF snipers in Rafah despite the ceasefire. Another eight were wounded as a result of Israeli gunfire in Rafah.
Under the ceasefire deal, aid deliveries have stepped up, with the UN saying 630 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday. Palestinians in Gaza have been celebrating the ceasefire and enjoying the increase in supplies, but many have also returned to their homes to find them in ruins, and it’s unclear when reconstruction can begin.
Israeli officials are also threatening that the genocidal war is not over, suggesting it will restart after the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which involves a 42-day truce during a hostage exchange.
So far, three female Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas in exchange for 90 Palestinian women and children who were held in an Israeli military prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
