Palestinians walk in a street in Jabalia along the rubble of destroyed buildings as the displaced head to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, on January 21, 2025. (AFP)

The Gaza health Ministry says more than 500 bodies have been recovered from beneath the rubble in the Gaza Strip since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect several weeks ago.

In a statement released on Sunday, the ministry said the remains belong to Palestinians who lost their lives during Israel`s genocidal war in the besieged enclave.

It added that 236 people have also been killed and 600 wounded by Israeli attacks since the truce began on October 10.

During the first 16 days of the ceasefire, 472 bodies were retrieved and taken to hospital morgues for identification, not including 195 bodies returned by Israel as part of the truce agreement, the ministry said.

The challenging task of locating and identifying the deceased has become one of the most grueling recovery operations in modern history as negotiations continue to maintain the fragile ceasefire.

Gaza`s Civil Defense officials estimate that 10,000 to 14,000 people are still missing, possibly trapped beneath destroyed homes, apartment blocks, and public buildings.

Palestinians are facing the monumental task of sifting through approximately 61 million tonnes of debris, a quantity roughly twenty times the amount produced by all Gaza conflicts since 2008, without the necessary machinery.

"The whole world has seen the equipment that was brought in to retrieve the bodies of Israeli captives," said Dr. Mohammed al-Mughir, director of humanitarian support and international cooperation at Gaza`s civil defense. "We also need the same equipment to retrieve our bodies."

So far, recovery teams have been relying on basic tools such as shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, and manual labor, as requests for excavators and bulldozers from Israel remain unanswered.

Even if permission were granted promptly, officials estimate that it would take up to nine months to recover most of the bodies.

Current efforts have primarily focused on smaller structures where manual digging is feasible, with larger apartment towers, some reaching seven or eight stories high, remaining untouched.

Meanwhile, numerous families continue to wait anxiously for updates on their missing loved ones, with around 30 families per day seeking assistance at the civil defense headquarters in Gaza City.

Since the war began, Gaza`s civil defense has received hundreds of missing-person reports and has compiled detailed estimates of potential burial sites, including over 35 houses in Rafah and numerous buildings in Khan Younis and the eastern regions of the strip where bodies are believed to be located.

The repeated displacements and evacuation orders have resulted in the separation of thousands of families, leaving many with the knowledge that their relatives perished, but uncertain of the whereabouts of their remains.

The UN Environment Program estimates that it would take seven years for 105 trucks, working daily, to remove all of Gaza`s debris if the roads were passable. However, 77 percent of Gaza`s road network has been damaged or destroyed, with many routes blocked or unsafe, and strewn with hazardous debris such as asbestos and unexploded ordnance.

According to the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), there have been 147 incidents involving buried explosives since October 2023, resulting in 52 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Luke Irving, head of the UNMAS program, has expressed concerns about the potential risk if people attempt to move rubble, saying "they will inevitably uncover unexploded ordnance."

Currently, Gaza`s hopes of a full-scale rubble-clearing operation and any return to normal life are out of reach. Survivors are now grappling with the haunting question of whether anything can ever stand again amidst the destruction.

On October 10, a ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip. Despite the truce, conditions remain dire. Large parts of the region remain inaccessible due to the continued presence of Israeli forces.

The Israeli regime continues to violate the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, carrying out airstrikes and shootings, while restricting aid into the territory.