Rescuers find dozens of bodies in Gaza ruins amid cease-fire between Israel and Hamas | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Palestinians have recovered dozens of bodies buried under the rubble of Gaza and are searching for thousands more as a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas continues into its second day.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera on Monday that the bodies of 97 Palestinians were recovered from the the destroyed city of Rafah in southern Gaza since a cease-fire took effect the previous day with the release of the first three prisoners held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 111,000, according to local health authorities.

But the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency said it estimated 10,000 bodies were buried under destroyed structures across the Strip.

At least 2,840 bodies have been melted and there is no trace of them, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services in Gaza.

Meanwhile, many displaced residents who returned to their neighborhoods found them almost unrecognizable because of destruction of more than 15 months of war.

“[The level of destruction] was a big shock, and the amount [of people] the sense of shock is overwhelming at what has happened to their homes. It is destruction, total destruction,” Mohamed Gomaa, who lost his brother and nephew in warhe told the Reuters news agency.

“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no no. What happened was a war of extermination.”

Meanwhile, more than 630 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Monday, with at least 300 of those trucks heading to the north of the enclave, where the UN says famine is at risk.

With the increasing flow of aid to the Palestinian enclave, residents flocked to the markets, with some expressing delight at lower prices and the presence of new food items such as imported chocolates.

“Prices have fallen, the war is over and the crossing is open for more goods,” Aya Mohammad-Zaki, a displaced woman from Gaza City in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, told Reuters.

Attention is also beginning to focus on rebuilding the coastal enclave that the Israeli military demolished in retaliation for the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel.

In these attacks, 1,139 people were killed, and about 250 of them were captured in Gaza, according to Israeli data.

A UN damage assessment released this month found that clearing the more than 50 million tons of rubble left behind by Israeli bombing could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.

A UN report last year said rebuilding Gaza’s destroyed homes could take at least until 2040, but could drag on for decades. The remains are believed to be contaminated with asbestos as some refugee camps affected during the war are known to have been built with the material.

A UN Development Program official said on Sunday that development in Gaza has been set back 69 years as a result of the conflict.

Isolated incidents while the ceasefire mostly lasts

Residents and officials in Gaza said on Monday that for the most part the ceasefire appeared to be holding – although there were incidents of violence.

Two Palestinian civilians, one of whom was a teenager, were killed by Israeli snipers in Rafah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Eight Palestinians, including children, were also injured on Monday as a result of Israeli gunfire in Rafah.

Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at people who approached soldiers deployed under the ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, Mohamad Elmasry, a professor of media studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said the Israeli media is now increasingly focusing on the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting the war in Gaza.

“They are calling this a spectacular failure,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that Netanyahu had not fulfilled his promise to eliminate Hamas.

“And now he has to watch on all TV screens as Hamas fighters dressed in uniform escort Israeli prisoners to their vehicles,” the academic added.

“He is looking at how Hamas will continue to govern Gaza and oversee the security situation, the humanitarian aid situation and all elements of this ceasefire. Hamas has not been eliminated, and that is very embarrassing for Netanyahu.”