Palestinians are taking the opportunity provided by the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to search for the remains of loved ones.
With a heavy heart, keen eyes, and trembling hands, Abu Muhammed Ghaith methodically sifted through the thick nylon bags used as makeshift shrouds for those killed in Gaza. He had hoped to find some sign of his missing son inside the morgue at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. But what he saw were only unidentified body parts and fragmented remains.
The view left him on the ground, overcome with sorrow and fatigue. But he managed to muster his energy and kept searching for any sign of 17-year-old Muhammed, changing his attention from bodies to personal belongings: a pair of sandals with yellow plastic patches or an orange sweater, a black jacket, tracksuit pants – anything that might be his son’s.
Has anyone seen a patched sandal with a yellow sole? Please, if you find it, let me know,” Abu Muhammed pleaded with others who, like him, had come to the morgue early on Tuesday to look for their loved ones among the remains of dozens of bodies that the Palestinian Civil Defence had salvaged from beneath the rubble in Rafah, south of Khan Younis on the Egyptian border.
Tears were running down his face as he dropped down to his knees and leaned against the wall. “I am no longer seeking his body but only his sandal, yes, just his sandal. See the lows to which we have stooped?” he spoke, murmuring sorrow and a sense of helplessness.
