Gaza rescuers recover 12 more bodies from neighborhood, bringing total to 75

Search operations continue for 12th consecutive day as part of project to recover bodies of missing people from beneath rubble of destroyed homes

Gaza’s Civil Defense said Thursday that its teams recovered the bodies and remains of 12 Palestinians from beneath the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Al-Taj Square in Gaza City, raising the number recovered from the area to 75. In a brief statement, the Civil Defense said its teams in Gaza governorate, in cooperation with an Egyptian committee, continued search and recovery operations for the 12th consecutive day beneath the rubble of destroyed homes in the Yarmouk neighborhood. The search operations are part of the second phase of the “Recovery of Martyrs’ Bodies” project launched by the Civil Defense on July 19 to recover the remains of missing people from beneath buildings destroyed by Israel. The second phase includes searches under the rubble of homes in Gaza, northern Gaza and central Gaza governorates and is being carried out over 800 working hours. According to previous Civil Defense data, the search operations cover 147 destroyed homes believed to contain the bodies of 1,072 people beneath the rubble. Recovery operations have proceeded slowly due to shortages of necessary equipment and machinery, despite a ceasefire agreement in force in Gaza since Oct. 10, 2025 which Palestinian authorities say provides for the entry of heavy equipment and machinery to help remove rubble and recover victims. In October 2025, Gaza’s Government Media Office said around 9,500 Palestinians had been missing since the start of the Israeli war on the enclave, including people whose bodies remain beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings and others whose fate remains unknown. The first phase of the “Recovery of Martyrs’ Bodies” project began in late November 2025 and recovered around 333 bodies and remains out of 559 people reported missing beneath the rubble of 54 homes and buildings. Since Oct. 8, 2023, Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and injured over 174,000 others in its genocide in Gaza while destroying around 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure.