Gazans dig through rubble by hand for bodies

Much rattled, Mohammed Alloush, a Palestinian man from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, rushed to his relatives' house on Sunday to see what had happened after it was attacked by the Israeli army, reported Xinhua.

Upon his arrival with dozens of his neighbors, Alloush was shocked to find the house, once alive with more than 50 residents, completely destroyed.

"We heard cries for help from beneath the rubble. Some were still alive. I must help and rescue them," Alloush told Xinhua with a breaking voice.

However, neither Alloush nor any other responders have any tools in hand.

"We are forced to dig with our bare hands to help the injured and pull out the dead as possible as we can," said the 35-year-old father of four, holding the body of a child in his arms.

"The situation is very dangerous here, as the Israeli army may strike the house again, but we have to race against time to rescue as many as we can," he said.

Alloush said he and his neighbors have to bury the dead in place, and transfer the injured to the Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals, which have been out of service, with donkey carts.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli army killed at least 36 members of Alloush's family in an attack on their house in Jabalia refugee camp, according to locals and medical sources.

The attack was part of Israel's ongoing large-scale military offensive in the area starting from Oct. 5, which aims to kill the remnants of Hamas and prevent it from regrouping in the territory, the Israeli military has claimed.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, said the Israeli military forced the Civil Defense teams to leave the area and sieged many locals inside their houses.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 43,603, with injuries up to 102,929, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli offensive has killed more than 1,800 people, wounded about 4,000 others, and left hundreds missing, apart from destroying all local hospitals, the Hamas-run government media office said Monday in a press statement.

Meanwhile, rescue operations are difficult in Gaza City, even with the presence of the Civil Defense services.

On Saturday night, the Israeli army killed at least five Palestinians in an attack on a house of the al-Khour family in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood west of Gaza City.

"It was very hard for the ambulances and Civil Defense to reach the area quickly, so I decided to use my hands to rescue the survivors and pull out the dead to bury them in the early morning," 25-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Doghmosh told Xinhua.

Doghmosh said he and his friends used the flashlights on their mobile phones to see clearly through the rubble so that they could pull out the casualties as soon as possible.

"All the time, we are in a race against death, war, and time. So, we have to take the mission into our own hands and help each other as best we can," he said.