They own 2 excavators in Gaza and can't keep up with demand as families dig for remains
Old machinery, shortages of parts, fuel and oil, make retrieving remains from rubble slow, painstaking work
In the heart of Gaza City, several members of the Al-Drimli family dig for the remains of their friend and neighbour in the rubble of their former home, using only shovels, buckets, a wheelbarrow and their hands.
It's the middle of the day on Monday and the sun's rays are strong. The men work in silence, their heads covered by orange towels or the hoods of sweatshirts. The sounds of shovels clanging in rubble and the buzz of an electric saw fill the air.
The men fill the dusty wheelbarrow with rubble and wheel it to a nearby pile — it barely puts a dent in the mounds of broken cinder block and metal rebar remaining from the six-storey residential building that was hit by an airstrike in November 2023.
The Al-Drimli family had already recovered the remains of their loved ones at the site and is now looking for a neighbour who was sheltering with them when a strike destroyed the building.
The Gaza Health Ministry estimates that there are between 8,000 and 10,000 bodies still under the rubble almost three years after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
"We work with our hands because the cost of equipment today is very expensive and unavailable," Ayman Al-Drimli told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife.
Officials and heavy equipment operators in Gaza say there are currently only about a dozen barely functioning excavators in the strip. They say the machines, which were frequently targeted by strikes during the war, are difficult to maintain under current conditions, which include a lack of parts for repair as well as oil and fuel shortages.
Excavators in high demand
Samir Sabra and his son, Uday Sabra, run two excavators in the Gaza Strip. He says the oil alone needed to run one excavator costs at least 2,500 shekels (about $1,175 Cdn) — not a price he can easily afford.
"We can't run the equipment like this," he told CBC on Monday. "There is no maintenance, no equipment and no spare parts."
WATCH | Excavator owner in Gaza says he can't keep up with demand:Later that day, his son was at a different site just off the main road in Gaza City digging for remains with members of the Palestinian Civil Defence, a volunteer organization of first responders who visit strike sites to search for survivors and recover bodies.
"People call us every day," Uday said, noting he and his father can't keep up with the demand for their services. "There isn't enough equipment for the work because there are so many martyrs under the rubble."
He says he's been working at this site for a week and isn't done yet.
"The amount of damage and destruction in this country, one machine or two machines won't do anything."
Equipment targeted during war
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, says there still aren't many excavators available in the strip because they were targeted by strikes during the war.
"There was a policy and strategy of the Israeli army to destroy this equipment," he said.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) did not respond to questions from CBC News about strikes targeting heavy machinery in the strip.
Basal says Civil Defence hires out only one excavator at a time to avoid making the situation worse.
“We are working with the International Committee for the Red Cross on this group of victims under the rubble with one digger who works three days and stops for one day for maintenance,” he said at the site in Gaza City where Uday Sabra was working.
Basal says that despite last October's ceasefire agreement, which included a point on allowing more heavy machinery and equipment to clear rubble and roads, there hasn’t been a change on the ground.
"If we remain in this situation in Gaza," he said, "we are talking about long years of … removing the bodies from under the rubble."
Border restrictions
Humanitarian aid groups have stated that Israeli restrictions on fuel, oil and spare parts are hampering efforts to maintain machinery like hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water trucks.
The United Nations notes that restrictions on the entry of heavy equipment have slowed the process of reaching and recovering remains, and Civil Defence recently urged the international community to act to get machinery into the strip to help do this.
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In a statement to CBC News, the IDF said it fulfils its obligations under international law, noting that the policy for the entry of heavy equipment into the strip is "determined based on security considerations" and "in accordance with directions from the political echelon."
The statement also said "fuel tankers enter Gaza every day via international organizations."
Back at the site in Gaza City, Uday continued to dig, slowly but surely making a dent in the mounds of rubble.
He says he will keep coming back until he can recover the remains and give the dead some peace.
With files from Mohamed El Saife