More than 8,000 Palestinian bodies are believed to remain buried under rubble in the Gaza Strip, where less than 1% of debris has been cleared after Israel’s two-year war on the enclave, an Israeli media report said Monday, citing a U.N. official.
The Haaretz newspaper, citing an unnamed official from the U.N. Development Programme, said the slow pace of debris removal means the process could take up to seven years.
Thousands of bodies are still buried beneath collapsed buildings across the enclave, the official added, as families continue to wait to recover and bury relatives.
The assessment is based on data from Palestinian civil defense authorities, which have warned of severe shortages in equipment and capacity, slowing efforts to clear vast areas of destruction.
Israel has continued to commit daily violations of a cease-fire deal that was signed last October, killing 828 Palestinians and injuring 2,342, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ceasefire was meant to end Israel's two-year genocidal war, which left more than 72,000 dead and 172,000 wounded, and destroyed 90% of civilian infrastructure in the Palestinian territory.
The U.N. estimates reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.
