Civil defence teams reach bodies of Palestinians amid Israeli attack on Rafah

The Palestinian Civil Defence Administration in the Gaza Strip reported that teams reached a significant number of bodies in the wreckage from an airstrike by the Israeli army on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Anadolu news agency reported.

“Many Palestinians were martyred in the air strike carried out by the occupation state (Israeli) army on a multi-story building belonging to the Abdulal family located on George Street in the eastern part of Rafah,” according to a statement by the Civil Defence Administration.

It highlighted that teams reached bodies under the rubble and that efforts are underway to reach the missing and injured.

Witnesses also told Anadolu that first aid and civil defence teams had reached the bodies of many, including women and children, in the building that was targeted.

Israel has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians since a 7 October, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 hostages taken.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The conflict has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.​​​​​​​

Global calls for a ceasefire have been growing as the war has entered its seventh month.

READ: 48 more Palestinians killed in Gaza as Israeli onslaught continues: Health Ministry