GAZA: Civil defence teams in Gaza have recovered the bodies of 30 members of a single family from the rubble of their home in western Gaza City, highlighting the scale of civilian losses as Israel’s war on the territory continues.
The victims belonged to the Salem family and were killed in an Israeli air strike on their house in the al-Rimal neighbourhood on 19 December 2023, Gaza’s Civil Defence said on Tuesday. Officials believe as many as 60 members of the family may have died in the attack.
The operation marked the first site searched under a new, organised campaign launched by the Civil Defence to locate thousands of Palestinians believed to be buried beneath the debris of destroyed buildings across the Gaza Strip. Rescuers said searches were continuing with extremely limited equipment, including a single excavator.
Palestinian authorities say Israeli forces now occupy more than half of Gaza and continue military operations in other areas, despite widespread destruction and mounting civilian casualties.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, nearly 70,700 Palestinians — most of them women and children — have been killed since the war began in October 2023, with more than 171,000 injured. Much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble.
The recovery of the Salem family’s bodies came a day after the International Criminal Court’s appeals chamber rejected an Israeli legal challenge aimed at blocking an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In its ruling, the court refused to overturn a lower court decision allowing prosecutors to continue investigating Israel’s conduct in the war following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The decision clears the way for the ICC’s Palestine investigation to proceed. In November last year, the court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel does not recognise the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and has repeatedly denied committing war crimes in Gaza. The ICC had also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri, but later withdrew it after reports of his death.
Israel had argued that its assault on Gaza after 7 October constituted a new situation requiring fresh notification from the ICC prosecutor. Judges rejected that claim, ruling that the original 2021 notification — when the court formally opened its investigation into alleged crimes in occupied Palestinian territory — already covered subsequent events.
The ruling comes as fighting continues despite a ceasefire that took effect on 11 October 2025. Gaza’s health ministry says at least 391 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded since then, with hundreds of bodies still being recovered from the rubble.
