‘Skull without a jaw’: Gaza survivors search for what remains of the dead

Palestinians are taking the opportunity provided by the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to search for the remains of loved ones.

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestine – With a heavy heart, keen eyes and trembling hands, Abu Muhammed Ghaith meticulously searched through the thick nylon bags used as makeshift shrouds for those killed in Gaza. Inside the morgue at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, he was hoping to find a trace of his missing son. Instead, he was met only with unidentified body parts and fragmented remains.

The sight left him collapsed on the ground, overwhelmed by grief and exhaustion. Yet, he gathered his strength and continued searching for any trace of 17-year-old Muhammed, shifting his focus from bodies to personal items: a pair of sandals patched with yellow plastic or an orange sweater, a black jacket, tracksuit pants – anything that could belong to his son.

“Has anyone seen a patched sandal with a yellow sole? Please, if you find it, let me know,” Abu Muhammed pleaded with others who, like him, had come to the morgue early on Tuesday to look for their loved ones among the remains of dozens of bodies that the Palestinian Civil Defence had salvaged from beneath the rubble in Rafah, south of Khan Younis on the Egyptian border. Tears streamed down his face as he sank to his knees and leaned against the wall. “I’m no longer looking for his body – just his sandal. You see what we’ve come to?” he muttered, a mix of sorrow and helplessness in his voice.

A ceasefire that came into effect on Sunday between Israel and Hamas has enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to their mostly-demolished homes in Rafah and elsewhere in the Strip. Relentless shelling for 15 months has driven nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza into displacement, many without the chance to properly reclaim the bodies of loved ones who perished beneath bombing and rubble.

The devastated infrastructure and Israel’s targeting of ambulances and civil defence also hindered their ability to reach sites struck by bombs.