The Civil Defense Authority in the Gaza Strip said on Friday that its crews continue to recover the bodies of the people killed by Israel during the war over the course of more than 15 months, using manual equipment and without personal protection.

The spokesman for the agency, Raed Al-Dahshan, added that the lack of equipment necessary to retrieve the bodies of the residents from under the rubble of destroyed homes is hindering the retrieval operations.

He stated that the civil defense crews are trying to penetrate the concrete roofs piled on top of each other to reach the bodies of the residents buried underneath them with "hand hammers," according to what was reported by the "Anatolia" news agency.

Since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, civil defense and ambulance crews and families have recovered hundreds of bodies of dead who were killed during the Israeli war, some of which were in the streets and others under the rubble of homes, but at close distances from the roofs.

The lack of equipment and machinery needed to lift tons of rubble and retrieve bodies drains much of the Civil Defense’s efforts, as it is often unable to reach them.

He continued, "On Thursday, we had a bitter experience in this regard, as we went to retrieve the bodies of martyrs from under the rubble of a bombed house. We tried repeatedly to reach them with manual equipment, but we did not succeed."

He said that the crews are recovering the decomposed bodies of the residents, without clothes or personal protective equipment to protect them from diseases or direct injuries.

He called for the necessity of bringing in heavy equipment, machinery and personal protection means, which would help in the quicker recovery of the bodies of the martyrs from under the rubble of destroyed homes, to bury them and honor them.