The General Directorate of Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, announced the start of search operations to recover the bodies of martyrs from beneath the rubble of small residential buildings in Gaza City, which were destroyed by the Israeli occupation on their residents during its assault on the Gaza Strip.

The directorate confirmed that the Civil Defense in Gaza does not possess any heavy rescue equipment and is carrying out its duties using only simple, rudimentary tools, after the occupation destroyed most of the agency’s resources and capabilities during the war. It stressed that the Civil Defense needs 20 bulldozers and 20 excavators in order to be able to recover thousands of bodies from under the rubble.