GAZA, AUG 2: Authorities in Gaza said Saturday that they had recovered the remains of another 112 people in rubble, part of daunting operations after more than two years of Israeli strikes.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said it found the remains or body parts following 136 hours of digging, largely with bare hands, in Sabra, a neighborhood in the south of Gaza City.

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The remains included those of 40 children, 38 women and seven people who had had physical disabilities, according to the agency, which serves as a rescue service under Hamas.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it supported the operation, which took place over nearly two weeks.

“For more than two and a half years, thousands of families in Gaza have lived in pain and uncertainty, waiting for the chance to recover the remains of their loved ones, mourn them and lay them to rest with dignity,” said Amani Al-Naouq, ICRC spokesperson in Gaza.

“The search for missing persons and the recovery of human remains is a critically important humanitarian issue,” she told AFP.

Colonel Mohammed Abu Dan, who is in charge of the site for the civil defense agency, said that the team has not yet found 157 other bodies believed to be under the rubble there.

He described the search as arduous, with teams sifting by hand through destroyed concrete and twisted metal.

Thousands of people’s remains are still unaccounted for in Gaza, many of them believed to have been buried under rubble from intense Israeli air strikes.

Restrictions imposed on media outlets and limited access in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying tolls or freely covering the violence.

The health ministry has confirmed the deaths of more than 73,300 people in the war, in figures that are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The war broke out when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,221 people and dragging 251 hostages into Gaza in the deadliest attack on the Israeli population since the creation of the state in 1948.