AS the ceasefire between Israel and the resistance enters its second week, a new dispute has erupted; this time over Israeli bodies buried by Israel beneath Gaza’s ruins.
Israel has threatened that it may resume the genocide if Hamas fails to find all Israeli bodies still missing in Gaza. The threat came even as US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday night that Hamas is “certainly searching” for the remains and that some are likely buried under the rubble of destroyed homes. Trump said he was “optimistic” the matter would be resolved, though Israeli officials continue to escalate.
But in Gaza, many Palestinians view this dispute with disbelief. While global headlines fixate on the fate of a few dead Israeli prisoners of war, over 9,000 Palestinian civilians remain missing under the rubble, their bodies unrecovered for months, with many of them buried alive, because Israel’s siege and bombardment destroyed the very tools and roads needed for rescue.
Israel’s carpet bombing of the Strip has not only killed tens of thousands of civilians but also buried its own captives beyond reach. What began as a campaign to “free Israeli prisoners” has left a landscape of mass graves, shattered hospitals, and impassable debris fields.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 170,000 injured since Israel’s genocide began on October 7, 2023. Thousands of others remain trapped under collapsed buildings, while civil defense and rescue teams lack heavy machinery, fuel, and safety equipment to dig through the destruction.
Rescue crews say even basic operations are impossible. Many areas are either under Israeli control or sealed off by bomb craters, and those who try to reach the ruins often work with bare hands.
Why Hamas Could Not Find All Israeli Bodies
Four main challenges stand in the way of retrieving the remaining Israeli bodies:
- Massive destruction: Some of the bodies are believed to be buried under enormous piles of rubble created by Israel’s bombardment, requiring heavy machinery and advanced scanning technology.
- Restricted access: Over half of Gaza remains under Israeli military control, leaving Palestinian teams unable to move freely or operate safely.
- Lost information: Many resistance fighters who guarded or documented the captives’ locations were assassinated in Israeli strikes, taking vital information with them.
- Fragmented control: Some captives were held by smaller Palestinian factions rather than Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, creating further uncertainty.
- Israel’s blockade: Israel continues to block the entry of heavy machinery and bulldozers into the Gaza Strip, delaying efforts to recover the bodies of its own prisoners, who were killed by its intense bombardment of the enclave.
In addition, Gaza has no DNA testing capacity to identify decomposed remains. Laboratories equipped with PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology are required to extract genetic material from decayed tissues, a process impossible under Israel’s blockade conditions.
Ceasefire Under Strain
Since the October 11 ceasefire began, the Ministry of Health has recorded 23 new Palestinian deaths and 122 injuries from Israeli violations. Civil defense crews have recovered 381 new bodies from beneath the rubble, while Israel has handed back 120 unidentified Palestinian bodies it had kidnapped.
Hamas has so far returned 10 of 28 Israeli bodies listed in the ceasefire agreement. The rest, the group says, are “buried too deep for current teams to reach.”
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff told The New York Post he remains confident that all Israeli remains “will eventually be returned,” echoing Trump’s optimism despite Israel’s growing incitement.
Observers say the Netanyahu government bears full responsibility for the delay. They note that Israel’s airstrikes obliterated both Palestinian neighborhoods and the underground sites where captives were held, making recovery physically impossible.
“The occupier created this reality,” Hamas said in a statement. “It destroyed the tunnels and homes where captives were located, and now blames others for the consequences of its own bombing.” — QNN
