Civil Defence in Gaza: 8,000 bodies under rubble, 3,000 missing

Palestinian civil defense teams carry out search and recovery operations with heavy machinery at the site of a building destroyed during Israeli attacks in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, on February 12, 2026. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]

The Civil Defence in Gaza has said that around 8,000 bodies remain under the rubble of destroyed buildings across the territory, despite ongoing search and rescue efforts.

In a statement on Thursday, spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said Civil Defence teams are working under very difficult conditions with limited resources, which makes it hard to reach many affected areas.

He added that more than 3,000 people are still missing, with no confirmed information about whether they are alive, have died, or been detained.

He pointed out that hundreds of bodies had decomposed or lost their features during the search operations, due to the prolonged time and the difficulty of removing the rubble amidst a lack of heavy equipment and necessary technical capabilities.

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