On the first full day of peace in Gaza on Monday, rescue workers and civilians began to reckon with the sheer scale of the destruction in the Strip.
The Gaza Civil Defense Agency – the main emergency response service in the Strip – said it feared more than 10,000 bodies were still buried under the vast sea of rubble.
Spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the BBC they hoped to retrieve the dead within 100 days, but that was likely to be delayed due to a lack of bulldozers and other essential equipment.
New pictures from Gaza after Sunday’s cease-fire showed scenes of complete devastation caused by the 15-month Israeli offensive, especially in the north of the enclave.
The UN previously estimated that 60% of buildings across Gaza were damaged or destroyed.
Although the sounds of bombardment were replaced by celebrations when the ceasefire began on Sunday, the reality facing people across Gaza remains desperate.
According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), the war has left more than two million Gazans homeless, without income and completely dependent on food aid to survive.
That aid began entering Gaza immediately after a ceasefire on Sunday, with the UN saying at least 630 trucks had entered the strip before the end of the day – the highest number since the war began 15 months ago.
Sam Rose, acting director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees in Gaza, said the aid supplies were just the beginning of the challenge of bringing the Strip back to life.
“We are not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads, infrastructure, we have individuals, families, communities that need to be rebuilt,” he said.
“The trauma they’ve been through, the suffering, the loss, the grief, the humiliation and the cruelty they’ve endured over the past 16 months – it’s going to be a very, very long journey.”
In Israel, the families of the three hostages freed in the first exchange spoke at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Monday evening. Mandy Damari, mother of Emily Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, said Emily was in “good spirits” and “on the road to recovery” despite losing two fingers in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, Romi Gonen’s mother, said: “We got our Romi back, but all families deserve the same outcome, both the living and the dead. Our hearts are with the other families.”
Ahead of the press conference, Israeli authorities released a new video showing Damari, 28, Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, tearfully greeting their mothers on Sunday just moments after being taken from Gaza.
If the first phase of the truce holds, 30 more hostages will be released from Gaza in the next 40 days in exchange for around 1,800 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons.
Palestinian health authorities estimate that more than 46,900 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 15 months of war, and more than 110,700 have been wounded.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says most of the dead are women and children – a claim supported by the UN.
A UK-led study published this month by the medical journal The Lancet suggests the health ministry’s figures may be underestimating the death toll by more than 40%.
Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency said in a statement Monday that 48 percent of its personnel were killed, injured or detained during the conflict, and 85 percent of its vehicles and 17 of 21 facilities were damaged or destroyed.
Although the risk of airstrikes has disappeared, for now the grueling work continues for the remaining employees of the Civil Protection. Pictures shared with the BBC on Monday by members of the agency in northern Gaza show them carrying out harrowing work, including the retrieval of dead babies and human remains in poor condition.
“There are dead in every street. In every neighborhood there are people under buildings,” said Abdullah Al-Majdalawi, a 24-year-old Civil Protection worker in Gaza City.
“Even after the ceasefire, we received many calls from people telling us, please come, my family is buried under the rubble.”
Malaak Kasab, a 23-year-old recent university graduate displaced from Gaza City, told the BBC on Monday that members of her own family were among those yet to recover.
We lost a lot of our family members, and some are still under the destroyed buildings, she said. “There are a lot of people under the rubble – everyone knows about this.”
Kasab’s family home in the apartment building was not completely destroyed, she said, but it was badly damaged. “There are no doors, windows, water, electricity, nothing. Not even wood for the fire. It is impossible to live.”
Movement is still dangerous for displaced Gazans as the Israeli army begins the process of withdrawing from populated areas of the Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned people not to approach their personnel or facilities, nor to enter the buffer zone they have created around the Gaza border and around the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts through Gaza separating the north from the south.
But many residents were keen to see what was left of their homes before being advised. Hatem Eliwah, a 42-year-old factory supervisor from Gaza City, said he was considering walking from his shelter in Khan Younis in the south.
“We have been waiting for this ceasefire like people waiting to enter paradise,” Eliwah said. “I lost two brothers and their families. I lost cousins, uncles. The only thing I hope for is to go home.”
Both sides are seriously concerned that the deal could collapse even before the end of the first phase in about six weeks, and Israel has stressed that it reserves the right to resume military action in Gaza at any time.
Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the deal as a “ray of hope” and said its commitments must be met.
But Guterres warned of a worsening situation in the occupied West Bank, where there has been a sharp increase in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.
“Senior Israeli officials are openly talking about officially annexing all or part of the West Bank in the coming months,” Guterres said, adding: “Any such annexation would constitute the most serious violation of international law.”
Muath Al-Khatib contributed to this report
