{"id":4212,"date":"2025-11-28T13:42:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4212"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:42:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:42:39","slug":"gazas-civil-defense-forces-dig-for-10000-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4212","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s Civil Defense Forces Dig for 10,000 Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The mission that<\/span> haunts Nooh al-Shaghnobi most took place on September 17, near the al-Saha area of eastern Gaza City. Israeli forces had bombed a home, killing more than 30 members of one extended family. Most of their bodies were trapped under the rubble.<\/p>\n

Al-Shaghnobi\u2019s Gaza Civil Defense force team pulled two dead young girls from the bombed house and kept digging, crawling under collapsed floors. \u201cWe don\u2019t go under unless someone is alive,\u201d he told The Intercept. \u201cOtherwise, we dig from above \u2014 ceiling by ceiling.\u201d What followed was a descent into something dreamlike and horrifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe walked 12 meters under the rubble,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery meter, the air grew less. I crawled past legs, arms, the body of a child hugging his dead mother. I felt the ground shake from bombings above.\u201d<\/p>\n

From deep inside the wreckage, the team heard a young girl calling, \u201cI\u2019m here. I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Civil Defense force is an emergency and rescue operations group<\/a> administered by the Palestinian Minister of Interior. After two years of Israeli genocide, it has an estimated 900 personnel and has lost roughly 90% of its operating capacity, Civil Defense workers told The Intercept. In the absence of heavy equipment, the civil defense teams use simple tools like hammers, axes, and shovels. Without excavators or heavy equipment, a single recovery can take days.<\/p>\n

Local civil defense workers estimate there are still 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you hear a voice, you know there is life. That\u2019s enough to make you risk your life to recover this soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat motivates us,\u201d al-Shaghnobi said, \u201cis that when you hear a voice \u2014 even one \u2014 you know there is life. That\u2019s enough to make you risk your life to recover this alive soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time al-Shaghnobi finally reached Malak, she was unconscious with no pulse. Her eyes open, her legs blue, she had passed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to wake her up, but it was too late,\u201d al-Shaghnobi said. \u201cI was in a moment of utter stillness, and I could hear nothing but my own breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Civil defense teams retrieve bodies in Al-Katiba on October 28, 2025.<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Nooh al-Shaghnobi<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

24-year-old al-Shaghnobi<\/span> has already spent seven years working for Gaza\u2019s Civil Defense force. Like many of his colleagues, he eats and sleeps at his workplace. His family\u2019s home in the Tal Al-Hawa area of western Gaza City was destroyed in the final days of the war, and his family remains displaced in the south.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think the ceasefire means we can breathe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for us, the end of the war is the beginning of the real war: pulling out the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Shaghnobi believes his aunt\u2019s corpse is among the 10,000 bodies that remain unrecovered. Large regions like Shujayaa and parts of Rafah are still inaccessible. Israeli forces are stationed there, marking the areas \u201cyellow zones.\u201d Civil defense crews cannot reach them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe barely recovered some bodies during this ceasefire,\u201d al-Shaghnobi said. \u201cWe have no machinery. Some areas, we know there are hundreds under the rubble, we simply can\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alaa Khammash, 25, said he feels terrible when his Civil Defense team is unable to rescue someone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I am dispatched on a mission, I feel a responsibility to finish it completely. I cannot simply stop midway,\u201d he said. It can take 10 to 12 hours to retrieve a single body if it\u2019s under a collapsed ceiling or wall. \u201cSometimes we can\u2019t recover the body since it needs heavy equipment.\u201d <\/p>\n

The years of genocide have left al-Shaghnobi feeling numb.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning of the war, we couldn\u2019t look at the bodies,\u201d al-Shaghnobi said. \u201cWe would close our eyes when retrieving them. By the middle of the war, we were wrapping them in white shrouds like it was daily routine. By the end of the war, my emotions became more defeated. The accumulation of pressure made it difficult to touch the bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBodies are found in various states: decomposed, non-decomposed, burnt, or even evaporated, sometimes just a skull or a skeleton,\u201d he added, \u201cThe body\u2019s texture is soft and smooth when found.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil defense team members wear a special uniform, gloves, and masks because of the smell of the decaying bodies. The bodies decompose rapidly when they\u2019re in the sun, Khammash said. \u201cThis occurs when a body lies exposed outdoors, subject to sun and air. Slow decomposition happens when the body is under a roof or shielded from air and sunlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smell can make al-Shaghnobi lose his appetite for days. For six months, he has struggled with digestive issues. Once, during Ramadan, \u201cI was fasting,\u201d al-Shaghnobi said, \u201cWe pulled a body that had been under rubble for a year in Al-Shifa hospital. It was half-decomposed. The smell hit me, my vision blurred, I nearly collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe identify locations of martyrs during the day based on blood stains, bones, and skulls,\u201d al-Shaghnobi explained. \u201cWe rely on families of the martyrs. \u2026 They call our team, often providing the equipment at their own personal expense to honor and bury their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without DNA tests, the workers identify bodies from clothes, shoes, rings, watches, metal implants, IDs, and gold teeth. The unknown bodies \u2014 often only skulls or skeletons \u2014 go to a cemetery for the unnamed.<\/p>\n

After retrieving bodies, the Civil Defense workers write a detailed paper describing the area, angle, building, height measurement, and burial location, all written on the shroud so families can potentially identify the body later.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, families insist on seeing the remains to believe their loved one is gone. \u201cPeople accept death more easily,\u201d al-Shaghnobi explained, \u201cwhen they see the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI moved my friend from one grave to another. He was just a skull.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI moved my friend from one grave to another,\u201d he said, recalling a reburial. \u201cHe was just a skull. I kept thinking \u2014 this is the end of every person. Bones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recovering a person\u2019s body entails a strange emotional paradox, said 27-year-old Mohammad Azzam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good because you found them,\u201d he said, \u201cbut bad because they are decomposed. A feeling I cannot explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Families often wait nearby, and when the team brings out the body, their reactions are marked by intense, overwhelming grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we find someone, they\u2019re usually half-decomposed,\u201d Azzam said. \u201cThe face is unrecognizable. Only a shoe, a wallet, a bracelet tells you who they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we find someone, they\u2019re usually half-decomposed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The workers navigate these traumatic moments while living through the horrors of genocide in their own families and homes. Khammash, like al-Shaghnobi, now lives at work: His house in eastern Gaza City sits dangerously close to the Israeli military presence.<\/p>\n

At work one day, Khammash said he got a dreaded call from a friend: \u201cThey told me my brother had been injured in the south, near the American aid distribution point, and taken to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. I called a friend of mine who works as a nurse there, and he told me my brother had died.\u201d<\/p>\n

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