DEIR EZ-OR-BARAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Civil defense workers dug bodies from collapsed buildings and pulled bodies from rubble-covered streets on Friday to retrieve dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks this week in a Gaza City neighborhood.
The discovery of the bodies came after Israeli forces reportedly withdrew from Tal al-Hawa and parts of the Sanaa neighborhood after days of shelling and fighting, after they launched an advance into the areas earlier this week to battle Hamas fighters who they said were regrouping.
The gruesome scenes of the dead highlight the horrific chain of events nine months into the Gaza war.
Israeli forces have invaded nearly every urban area in the tiny territory since October, and are now repeatedly re-invading some areas as Hamas shifts and holds power. Palestinians have been forced to repeatedly flee to escape the shifting attacks, or stay put and face death. Ceasefire negotiations are moving forward, but while they are close to an agreement, they have not yet reached one.
Videos circulating on social media showed civil defense workers wrapping bodies, including several women, in blankets on the rubble-strewn streets of Tal al-Hawa and Sinaa. Hands protruding from broken concrete where workers had dug up parts of collapsed buildings. Other videos showed burnt-out buildings.
Mahmoud Bassal, head of Gaza’s civil defense, said about 60 bodies have been found so far, including entire families believed to have been killed in shelling and airstrikes as they tried to flee. Some of the bodies have been eaten by dogs, others burned inside their homes or buried in the rubble, out of reach.
Fadel Naeem, director of the nearby Al Ahli Hospital, said he did not have an exact number but that at least 40 bodies found in the area had been brought to his hospital.
The Israeli military said it could not comment on the discovery of the bodies.
The Israeli attack on the area began after it ordered the evacuation of the area on Monday. The army said in a statement on Friday that its forces targeted the abandoned headquarters of the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), where Hamas is said to have launched operations.
UNRWA left the site in October, early in the war. The army said Friday that its forces had fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters inside the site and found caches of drone-making materials and weapons. It released photos of some of the materials found, but the claims could not be independently verified.
On Friday, troops withdrew from much of the area, but snipers and drones continued to fire, said resident Salem El-Reyes, who spoke with family members who fled to the south several months ago but still live nearby.
He said that during the attack, forces set fire to many houses, including his uncle’s, and made widespread arrests and interrogations at the UNRWA compound. At least 11 of his relatives were detained.
Two were released after being severely beaten, but the rest remain missing. Families are still searching for other relatives who are still missing. “Some may be detained, some may be out of contact, some may have been killed,” El Reyes said.
The previous day, civil defense workers said they had found dozens of bodies in Shijaiya, another Gaza City neighborhood where Israeli forces recently withdrew after a two-week offensive.
Most of the residents of Gaza City and the surrounding north He fled early in the war.But the UN estimates that about 300,000 remain in the north, and each new attack often leads people to flee to other parts of the north, as Israel has so far not allowed those who have fled from the south to return to the north.
The UK-based aid group Al-Khair Foundation said an airstrike early Friday hit an aid warehouse in Mwasi, which is part of an Israeli-declared “humanitarian safe zone” that covers parts of southern and central Gaza. Imam Qassim Rashid Ahmad, the group’s London director, said the strike killed an engineer from the group and three other humanitarian workers who were using the warehouse. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike.
Israel has launched an operation in Gaza. Hamas’ October 7 attack Militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.
Since then, Israeli ground attacks and bombings have killed more than 38,300 people and injured more than 88,000, according to Gaza Strip officials. Ministry of Public HealthThe ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced to flee their homes, with most now confined to squalid tent camps and facing widespread hunger.
Meanwhile, in Cairo, mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar continue to try to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas over a proposed agreement on a three-phase ceasefire in Gaza and a plan for releasing the hostages.
The US-backed proposal calls for an initial ceasefire accompanied by a limited hostage release and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza, while the two sides negotiate the terms of a second phase, which would bring about the full release of hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But obstacles remain.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not agree to any deal that would prevent the resumption of military operations until Hamas is eliminated. He also indicated Thursday that Israel intends to maintain control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which would be inconsistent with a complete withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas has dropped its demand that Israel agree up front to a permanent ceasefire, but a Hamas political source told The Associated Press that the group still wants written assurances from mediators that negotiations will continue until a permanent ceasefire is reached.
Otherwise, “Prime Minister Netanyahu could call off the negotiations at any time and resume attacks,” said Ahmed Abdel Hadi, head of Hamas’ political office in Lebanon.
Abdul Hadi also said Hamas does not intend to resume its role as the sole ruling party in the Gaza Strip after the war, but wants to see the establishment of a technocratic Palestinian government.
“We do not want to govern Gaza alone again in the next phase,” he said. Israeli officials have indicated they will demand the exclusion of Hamas in the second phase of talks.
Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from both within and outside the country, with Israeli politicians including Defense Minister Yoav Galant calling for a broad government investigation into the Israeli leader’s actions and relatives of the hostages marching to Jerusalem calling for reconciliation and the release of their loved ones.
The risk of regional escalation remains. The Israeli army said on Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed in northern Israel, where a firefight between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continues along the border.
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Associated Press reporters Abby Sewell and Sara El Deeb in Beirut, Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, and Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
