RIYADH: Gaza’s civil defense authorities on Saturday discovered 155 bodies of Palestinians in the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel, and rescue teams reported that around 9,500 Palestinians remained missing in the besieged territory.
Local authorities cataloged the catastrophic destruction of 85 percent of Khan Younis and Gaza City as hundreds of thousands of war-weary families picked their way through rubble-strewn streets, only to find many of their homes in ruins.
A fragile calm descended upon the Gaza Strip following the implementation of the first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, reported the Palestine Chronicle.
On the second day of the truce, the scale of the recovery operation was daunting, even as negotiations and preparations for a prisoner swap continued.
“More than half a million people have returned to Gaza (City) since yesterday,” said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the civil defense.
