Over 13,000 missing in unmarked graves across Gaza

 Over 13,000 Palestinians have gone missing since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a report released on 11 April. 

This includes Palestinians trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed by airstrikes, as well as those who have been forcibly disappeared and detained, or left buried in unmarked mass graves. 

In the report, Euro-Med called for “urgent international action to provide specialized teams and equipment to remove the rubble of homes and buildings bombed by Israeli army forces, rescue people trapped under its rubble who may still be alive, and recover thousands of bodies of others who died underneath since the start of the military attack on October 7.” 

“This estimate is based on the volume of initial reports of missing persons … It is difficult to estimate the true numbers of missing persons at this stage, given the continuing Israeli military attacks and the siege of many areas in which the Israeli army carries out its operations,” the report added. 

It also condemned Israel’s policy of forcible displacement against Palestinians in the strip. 

Last weekend, Israeli forces withdrew a significant bulk of troops from the Gaza Strip, leaving a limited number of forces in the strip to maintain control over the Netzarim corridor – which cuts Gaza in half and effectively prevents the return of displaced to the north. 

Days after the withdrawal, displaced families made their way back to the southern city of Khan Yunis, witnessing large-scale destruction and dozens of bodies trapped under heaps of rubble, according to testimonies given to Gaza’s civil defense. 

Hundreds of bodies, many decomposed, were also recovered in northern Gaza City on 9 April, in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex – which was subject to a two-week attack by Israeli forces that destroyed most of the facility and its buildings. 

Teams belonging to the Euro-Med monitor accompanied Gaza’s civil defense as they exhumed bodies of Palestinians from near Al-Shifa Hospital, confirming the scale of death inflicted by Israel’s assault, which lasted from 18 March to 1 April. 

In the 11 April report, Euro-Med condemned Israel’s violation of the right for victims to be buried with dignity and warned that leaving the bodies to decompose could result in the spread of epidemics. 

The monitor also accused Israel of committing “the crime of genocide.”