Gazans search for their dead under the rubble: It's a tragedy for which there are no words'

"A cruel twist of fate meant that Hussein Owda's children ran ahead to enter their home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, on May 17. Barely having crossed the threshold, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the building. The man rushed inside. Screams could be heard. His wife, badly injured, was pulled out alive, but their son Mohamed, four years old, was dead in her arms. None of the three children survived. The parents were only able to bury the youngest."

"In the first 24 hours alone, Gaza Civil Defense recovered 151 bodies. Some were decomposed and lying in the streets, reduced to skeletal remains. Another 116 had been trapped under rubble since the first Israeli bombings, which reached their two-year mark on October 7. No one knows exactly how many of these invisible dead are not included in the official list of more than 67,000 fatalities, compiled by the Gaza health authorities. It is, however, assumed to be thousands."

Hussein Owda lost three children when an Israeli airstrike destroyed their home in Jabalia on May 17; one child died immediately and two were trapped under rubble. Civil Defense rescuers without excavators could not reach the buried children for sixty-five days; one body was recovered while one remained missing as the family fled the razed neighbourhood. After the ceasefire, residents and Civil Defense teams began searching and recovered 151 bodies in 24 hours, including decomposed street remains and 116 previously trapped under rubble. Official Gaza health authorities list over 67,000 fatalities; estimates place buried remains between 11,000 and more than 14,500, with many unlikely to be recovered.

Read at english.elpais.com