Ahmed Asmar
03 February 2025•Update: 03 February 2025
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Civil Defense rescue teams removed the remains of the bodies of 20 Palestinians found in an empty land in the northern Gaza Strip who were killed by the Israeli army in the course of its genocidal war.
Anadolu correspondent witnessed on Sunday the recovery operations for the bodies from piles of sand in an empty land near a destroyed shelter school in the Sheikh Zayed town in northern Gaza.
Some bodies were recovered in a decomposed and dismembered state, while others were reduced to a few bones, which Civil Defense teams collected in small bags.
A rescue worker involved in the recovery operation told Anadolu that these bodies were discovered while leveling an empty plot of land near a shelter encampment being set up to receive displaced people who are returning from the southern Gaza Strip.
The rescuer, who requested anonymity, added that these bodies belonged to a group of Palestinians who were "executed and buried here by the Israeli army" during the months of genocide.
He also noted that none of the bodies have been identified despite the time that has passed since their recovery.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect on Jan. 19, hundreds of bodies of Palestinians were recovered and removed from under the rubble of destroyed homes and from the roads across the Gaza Strip.
According to figures from the Health Ministry in Gaza, the rescue teams have removed 488 bodies since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19.
Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 47,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst-ever global humanitarian disasters.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
