On Monday, the first day of peace in Gaza, rescue workers and civilians began to calculate the scale of destruction inflicted on the city.
The Gaza Civil Defense, the Gaza Strip’s main emergency response service, said it feared more than 10,000 bodies were still buried under the vast sea of debris.
Spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told the BBC they hoped to have the dead within 100 days, but delays were likely due to a lack of bulldozers and other essential equipment.
New images taken in the Gaza Strip following Sunday’s ceasefire show scenes of complete destruction caused by Israel’s 15-month offensive, particularly in the territory’s north.
The United Nations previously estimated that 60% of structures across Gaza were damaged or destroyed.
As the ceasefire began on Sunday, the sounds of bombings gave way to celebrations, but the reality facing Gaza residents remains dire.
According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the war has left more than 2 million people in Gaza homeless, without income, and completely dependent on food aid to survive.
The aid began entering Gaza shortly after Sunday’s ceasefire, and the United Nations said at least 630 trucks entered the strip before the end of the day.
The United Nations said 915 more trucks entered the region on Monday, the highest number since the war began 15 months ago.
Sam Rose, acting director-general of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, said the aid was just the beginning of the challenge of revitalizing the Strip.
“We’re not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads and infrastructure, we have individuals, families and communities that need to be rebuilt,” he said.
“The trauma, pain, loss, grief, humiliation and cruelty they have experienced over the last 16 months is going to be a very long road.”
In Israel, families of three hostages freed in the first exchange spoke at a news conference in Tel Aviv on Monday night. Mandy Damari, mother of dual Israeli-British citizen Emily Damari, said Emily was “in good spirits” and “despite Emily losing two fingers in a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.” “I am on the road to recovery,” he said.
“We got Romi back, but every family, living and dead, deserves the same outcome. Our hearts go out to the other families,” said Meirav Leshem Gonen, Romi Gonen’s mother.
Ahead of the press conference, Israeli authorities released new video showing Damari, 28, Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbreher, 31, tearfully greeting their mothers on Sunday shortly after they were rescued from the Gaza Strip. .
If the first phase of the ceasefire holds, 30 more hostages will be released from Gaza over the next 40 days in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Palestinian health authorities estimate that more than 46,900 people have been killed and 117,000 injured in the Gaza Strip during the more than 15 months of war.
The Defense Ministry said it did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said the majority of those killed were women and children. This is a claim backed by the United Nations.
A British-led study published this month in the medical journal The Lancet found that Department of Health figures may underestimate the number of deaths by more than 40%.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said in a statement on Monday that 48% of its personnel had been killed, wounded or detained during the conflict, while 85% of its vehicles and 17 of its 21 facilities had been damaged or destroyed.
The danger from the airstrikes has passed, but for now the grim work of the remaining Civil Defense Corps continues. Photos shared with the BBC by agency workers in northern Gaza on Monday show them carrying out gruesome tasks, including recovering dead babies and human remains in poor condition.
“There are dead people on every street, people under buildings in every neighborhood,” said Abdullah al-Mazdalawi, 24, a civil defense worker in Gaza City.
“Even after the ceasefire, I received many calls asking me to come because my family was buried under the rubble.”
Malaak Kasab, a 23-year-old recent university graduate who became a refugee in Gaza City, told the BBC on Monday that some members of his family had not yet been rescued.
“We lost many family members, some are still under the destroyed buildings,” she said. “There are a lot of people under the rubble. Everyone knows this.”
Kasab’s family home in an apartment building was very badly damaged, although not completely destroyed, she said. “No doors, no windows, no water, no electricity, nothing. Not even wood for a fire. You can’t live.”
Movement of Gaza refugees remains dangerous as Israeli forces begin the process of withdrawal from populated areas of the Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has warned people not to approach its troops or facilities, nor to enter the buffer zone it has created around the Gaza border and the Necharim Corridor, which divides Gaza into north and south.
But many residents wanted to see what was left of their homes sooner than they had been advised. Hatem Eliwa, 42, a factory supervisor in Gaza City, said he was considering setting off on foot from a shelter in Khan Younis in the south.
“We have been waiting for this truce like people waiting to enter heaven,” Eliwa said. “I lost two brothers and their families. I lost a cousin and an uncle. The only thing I still want is to go home.”
There are serious concerns on both sides that negotiations could break down before the first phase is completed in about six weeks, and Israel has stressed that it reserves the right to resume military action in Gaza at any time.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the deal as a “ray of hope” at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday and said its obligations must be met.
But Prime Minister Guterres warned of a worsening situation in the occupied West Bank, where attacks on Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages have increased significantly since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“Senior Israeli officials are speaking publicly about formally annexing all or part of the West Bank in the coming months,” Guterres said, adding, “Such annexation would be the most serious violation of international law.”
Muath Al-Khatib contributed to this report.
