In Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex, a mother searched for her only son among the exhumed bodies of those hastily buried during the war. “I left him in the morgue when we fled,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t know if he’s among them.” Her son, 33, was killed in November 2023, but the chaos of war denied him a proper burial.  

Civil Defense crews exhumed 48 bodies from Al-Shifa’s courtyards, where 520 martyrs, including patients, children, and women, were buried in mass graves during the Israeli assault. Many remain unidentified, their stories lost.  

Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, 20,000 lie under rubble, and thousands are missing. As families seek closure, calls grow for justice and accountability in the face of unimaginable loss.