Thousands of Palestinians remain buried beneath Gaza’s rubble, according to a Palestinian NGO, who has issued an urgent appeal to the international community for help recovering the bodies of the dead after nearly two years of war. The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared said today that without urgent international assistance the bodies of up to 9,000 people might never be recovered. Even more bodies may need recovering: Gaza Civil Defense told CNN that an estimated 15,000 bodies were likely entombed under the debris. Since October 2023, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has destroyed at least 92% of the enclave’s residential buildings – or around 436,000 homes, according to UN estimates, published in April. Becoming trapped under collapsed buildings and eventually dying is a high risk for Palestinians as heavy machinery to retrieve casualties is scarce in Gaza and stretched rescue and medical teams are barely able to keep up with the need for their services. The Palestinian NGO has called for the immediate deployment of international forensic teams, excavators and mobile DNA labs to help locate, recover and identify the dead. Without this aid, it said, families face the prospect of never giving their loved ones a proper burial.
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By Sana Noor Haq, Rachel Wilson, Soph Warnes, Lou Robinson, Henrik Pettersson
Israel’s nearly two-year war pushed parts of Gaza into “man-made” famine, according to a report published in August by a United Nations-backed initiative, deepening the Palestinians’ struggle for survival under relentless bombing, mass displacement and the spread of disease.
The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed expert panel that assesses global food insecurity and malnutrition, helped to fuel growing international outcry over Israel’s campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks – and was cited by some of countries that recently made moves towards formally recognizing a Palestinian state. The IPC forecast that by the end of September nearly a third of Gaza’s total population would face famine conditions, although it has not yet provided an update on that forecast.
In Gaza governorate alone – the largest by population of five in the Gaza Strip – more than half a million people were condemned to a cycle of “starvation, destitution and death,” the IPC added. The Israeli assault on Gaza City, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says is targeting one of Hamas’ “remaining strongholds” has choked relief operations for starving Palestinians, according to rights workers.
Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, accused Israel of using hunger “as a weapon against Palestinians,” in violation of international law.
“Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine.” – Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food. “Israel is using food and aid as a weapon to humiliate, weaken, displace and kill Palestinians in Gaza,” Fakhri told CNN on August 28….
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/02/middleeast/gaza-famine-causes-vis-intl
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Gaza and the Death of Conscience
Pankaj Mishra: The Shoah after Gaza
Israel’s War in Gaza Is Nothing but a War of Annihilation
“Write my name on my leg, Mama”
‘The Children Haunt Me at Night’: The Protest That’s Forcing Israelis to Face Kids Killed in Gaza
Gaza and the End of Western Fantasy
Michael Brenner: The West’s Reckoning?
A Conspiracy of Silence / The Killing Floor of Gaza
GABOR MATE interview: Zionism will be looked upon as one of the greatest disasters in Jewish history
Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity in Israel’s Genocide
After the truth-shower 