More than 7000 people are unaccounted for in Gaza with over 4 900 women and children missing since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.And they are all believed to be trapped under the rubbles.
According to Aljazeera, 51-year-old Yasser Abu Shamala goes to the place where his family’s house once stood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip every day and start digging through the rubble with his bare hands. His only hope is to find his family and give them a proper burial as the house was demolished by an Israel air strike on 26 October 2023 and all his 22 family members perished.
Painfully, for Shamala, apart from losing his whole family, he uses his hands to dig through the ruble as the Civil Defence in Gaza is overwhelmed and doesn’t have the modern equipment to rescue victims. “The equipment we use is very outdated, and the Civil Defence hasn’t received any new equipment since 2006. The Civil Defence is working with the least minimum of equipment,” said Captain Raed Saqr from the Fire and Rescue Department in the Gaza Civil Defence.
Israel has been dropping thousands of bombs on Gaza since October 7, the day the war started with Hamas attacks on southern Israel. The war which many has described as a genocide on the Gaza people has to date killed more than 21 000 people.
