The Director General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Munir al-Barsh, said on Thursday that nearly 80 million tons of rubble across the Gaza Strip are posing a major obstacle to locating and documenting missing people, as thousands of bodies remain buried beneath the debris.

Al-Barsh said rescue teams urgently need heavy machinery and specialized equipment to remove rubble and recover the bodies of those killed, in addition to protective equipment to shield workers from hazardous materials they encounter during operations.

He warned that indiscriminate rubble removal could result in the loss of locations where missing people are believed to be buried, preventing their identification and documentation.

Gaza death toll could rise as search efforts continue

Al-Barsh said the death toll from the war in the Gaza Strip has reached around 73,000, including nearly 21,000 children, while around 174,000 people have been wounded.

He stressed that the figures are expected to rise as search operations continue beneath the rubble and more bodies are recovered.

On the health front, Al-Barsh renewed warnings of disease outbreaks caused by contaminated water and the collapse of Gaza’s infrastructure.

He said the Strip is witnessing a widespread outbreak of smallpox, with around 58,000 cases recorded so far, amid deteriorating health conditions and severe shortages of medical resources.

Source:Websites