'In every street there are dead': Gaza rescuers reckon with scale of destruction

Gaza marked its first day of a full ceasefire on Monday, with rescue workers and civilians beginning to assess the vast destruction across the strip. The Gaza Civil Defense, the territory’s main emergency response agency, said it fears more than 10,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble. Spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told the BBC they hope to find all the victims within 100 days, but delays are likely due to a shortage of bulldozers and other necessary equipment.

New images from Gaza following Sunday's ceasefire show the widespread devastation caused by Israel's 15-month offensive, particularly in the enclave's north. The UN had previously estimated that 60% of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. While the sound of explosions was replaced with celebrations as the ceasefire began on Sunday, the reality for people in Gaza remains desperate. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the war has left more than two million Gazans homeless, without income, and completely reliant on food aid for survival.

Aid began entering Gaza immediately after the ceasefire on Sunday, with the UN saying at least 630 trucks entered the strip before the end of the day. The UN said another 915 trucks entered the enclave on Monday, the highest number since the war began 15 months ago. Sam Rose, the acting director for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, said the aid is just the beginning of the challenge of bringing the territory back to life. "We’re talking about not just food, healthcare, buildings, roads, infrastructure, we’re talking about individuals, families, communities that need to be rebuilt," he said. "The trauma, the pain, the loss, the grief, the humiliation, and the brutality that they have suffered over the last 16 months, this is going to be a very, very long road.”

In Israel, the families of three hostages released in the first exchange spoke at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Monday evening. Mandy Damari, the mother of Emily Damari, who has dual Israeli and British citizenship, said Emily was “in good spirits” and “recovering” despite losing two fingers in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Romy Gonen’s mother, Merav Leshem Gonen, said: “We got Romy back, but all families deserve the same result, whether alive or dead. We send our condolences to the other families.” Ahead of the press conference, Israeli authorities released new video footage showing Damari, 28, Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, tearfully greeting their mothers just after being brought out of Gaza on Sunday.

If the first phase of the ceasefire holds, 30 more hostages will be released from Gaza over the next 40 days, in exchange for the release of around 1,800 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Palestinian health officials estimate that more than 46,900 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 110,700 injured during the 15-plus months of war. The department does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says the majority of those killed were women and children, a claim supported by the UN. A UK-led study published this month in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that the health department's figures may underestimate the death toll by more than 40%. The Gaza Civil Defense said in a statement on Monday that 48% of its personnel have been killed, injured, or detained during the conflict, and that 85% of its vehicles and 17 of its 21 facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

While the risk of airstrikes has temporarily disappeared, the grim work continues for the remaining civil defense workers. Photos shared with the BBC on Monday by members of the agency in northern Gaza showed them carrying out the heartbreaking work of recovering dead babies and badly decomposed human remains. “There are dead people in every street. Every neighborhood has people buried under buildings,” said Abdullah Majdalawi, 24, a civil defense worker in Gaza City. “Even after the ceasefire, we are still receiving many calls from people saying please come, my family is buried under the rubble.” Malaka Kassab, 23, a recent graduate displaced from Gaza City, told the BBC on Monday that some of her own family members were still waiting to be found. “We lost a lot of family members, and some are still under the destroyed buildings,” she said. “There are a lot of people under the rubble - everyone knows this.” Kassab’s home in an apartment building was not completely destroyed, she said, but the damage was extensive. “There are no doors, no windows, no water, no electricity, nothing. There isn’t even wood to make a fire. It’s unlivable.”

Movement remains dangerous for displaced Gazans as Israeli forces begin to withdraw from densely populated areas of the strip. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned people not to approach its personnel or facilities, or to enter the buffer zones it has established around the Gaza border and around the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza north and south. “I want to realize the dream of my late brother” - Gazans face an enormous task as they try to rebuild their lives. But many residents are eager to see the remains of their homes sooner than they have been advised. Hatem Eliwa, 42, a factory supervisor from Gaza City, said he was considering making the trek from his shelter in Khan Younis in the south. “We have been waiting for the ceasefire like people waiting to enter paradise,” Eliwa said. “I lost two brothers and their families. I lost cousins, uncles. The only thing I still hope for is to go home.”

There are serious concerns on both sides that the agreement could collapse before the first phase is complete, and Israel has stressed that it reserves the right to resume military operations in Gaza at any time. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday that he welcomed the agreement as a first “glimmer of hope” and said its obligations must be fulfilled. But Guterres warned that the situation in the occupied West Bank had been deteriorating since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, with a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages. “Senior Israeli officials have spoken publicly about the formal annexation of all or parts of the West Bank in the coming months,” Guterres said, adding: “Any such annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law.”