Gaza's Civil Defense said it had recovered 19 bodies, mostly women and children, from the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Gaza City.
The search, which concluded on Saturday, was the latest in a slow, largely manual campaign to pull victims' bodies from the debris in Gaza. These efforts are hampered by a severe shortage of heavy machinery needed to clear shattered concrete.
Mohammed Abu Dan, who supervised the search operations, said work at the “Karam” building in western Gaza had ended after four days of continuous searching.
Specialized medical teams and civil defense personnel will move to another new site in Gaza City to continue search operations.
Civil defense officials have repeatedly said rescue teams are relying on rudimentary tools and exhausting manual labor amid a lack of heavy equipment capable of moving concrete slabs left after Israeli airstrikes.
Gaza's Health Ministry said more than 8,000 people remain missing under the rubble across the territory.
Since the ceasefire took effect last October 11, at least 1,254 people have been killed, 4,121 injured, and 804 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.
The total death toll since October 2023 has reached more than 73,300, with over 174,000 injured.
The search came after a mass funeral in Gaza City on Tuesday for 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, whose remains were exhumed from the rubble of a residential building in the Sabra neighborhood, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023.
