*With hand tools and bare hands, families and rescuers continue to search broken buildings for missing friends and relatives.* by Vivian Yee, Iyad Abuheweila, Abu Bakr Bashir and Ameera Harouda, NYTimes, March 23 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/world/middleeast/gaza-missing-bodies-deaths.html . . . Gaza has become a 140-square-mile graveyard, each destroyed building another jagged tomb for those still buried within.
The most recent health ministry estimate for the number of people missing in Gaza is about 7,000. But that figure has not been updated since November. Gaza and aid officials say thousands more have most likely been added to that toll in the weeks and months since then. Some were buried too hastily <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/world/middleeast/gaza-israel-burials-deaths.html> to be counted. Others lie decomposing in the open, in places too dangerous to be reached, or have simply disappeared amid the fighting, the chaos and ongoing Israeli detentions <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-palestinian-detainees.html> . The rest, in all likelihood, remain trapped under the rubble. . . . When a multistory building collapses, it is impossible to comb the hill of debris without heavy machines or fuel to power them. Often, neither is available. Gaza has been under a debilitating blockade jointly enforced by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control of the strip in 2007, and the types of equipment typically used to rescue people after earthquakes and other events of mass destruction are largely forbidden from entering the territory. . . . Since mid-November, after the Israeli military occupied most of northern Gaza and Gaza City, Palestinian Red Crescent Society teams have been unable to enter that part of the strip freely, said Nebal Fesakh, a spokeswoman for the group. There is nothing they can do to respond to desperate calls on the 101 line from people trapped there, or to treat the wounded, to take away a body, to dig for the missing. “Unfortunately, we just felt helpless because we were completely denied access to those areas,” Ms. Fesakh said. “Thousands of people are still stuck under the rubble, and now they’ve most probably died because it’s been so long.” . . . ... there was no way to get around the Israeli forces that had cut off the northern part of the strip from the south. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29665): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29665 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105146641/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
