Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Tania Kraemer and Mohamad Ibrahim
02:33 Mahmoud Basel | Civil Defense, spokesperson

Walking through what was Shati refugee camp in Gaza City is not easy.
It was here that Hani Al-Dhaifi’s entire family was killed. 
The bodies of his wife and two of his children are still buried somewhere under the rubble.
But he’s just one of thousands of people in Gaza asking for help. 

00:25
+++Hani Al-Dhaifi, ARABIC+++ 
“I appealed to everyone, left nothing undone, I posted on social media, I reached out to  Civil Defense. I personally went to the emergency and the local committees; I notified everyone, simply so that I can honor my wife and my children by burying them. My only request is to honor my wife and kids by laying them to rest, so that I can sleep.”+++

It was over a month ago that the Israeli air force bombed the area, as the military advanced into Gaza City.
Hani says his family of six had planned to leave for the south later that day.
He was taking dough to the nearby communal bakery when the house was hit.

He found one of his sons in the street.

01:01
+++Hani Al Dhaifi, Arabic+++
“There was a body, here, my son Bashir. Honestly, I couldn’t recognize him, no head, no body, nothing. Only his hand was there, and someone brought his foot.”+++

He was able to bury body parts of  his two oldest sons . But his wife and their two younger children are still under the rubble – and he can’t get to them without heavy machinery.  

01:28
+++Hani Al-Dhaifi, ARABIC.+++
“On the day of the truce, the first day of the truce, there was long hair here under this concrete slab, and I honestly thought it was my wife. We dug. I brought my brothers and the neighborhood folks, we dug by hand as you can see here. We kept digging and digging until we reached it and found the bone dissolved, but the hair was still there. When we got there, we found this half missing, and the other half like this, so I thought it was my wife.”+++

But it was the body of the neighbor’s daughter.
((TAKE A BEAT))

More than 10-thousand bodies are still buried under the rubble, says Gaza’s Hamas government-run Civil Defense.

During the war the rescue services were overwhelmed with calls for help. Now they’re having to focus on what they CAN do.

02:26
+++Mahmoud Basel, Civil Defense, spokesperson, ARABIC+++
For many of them, we can’t do anything. Meaning, if there’s a family under the rubble, with lots of debris and concrete, we can’t do anything for them. Now, we are working on recovering bodies that are easier to retrieve, like bodies in the roads, bodies in the streets, bodies that can be brought out from the rubble if the building is small.

For Hani Al Dhaifi, the loss is overwhelming.+++

02:55
+++Hani Al Dhaifi, ARABIC+++
“As for me, my future is over, frankly speaking. Right now, all I’m thinking about is to bury my wife and children, then go out and try to see what life I have left, honestly. My children were the apple of my eye. My eldest is 14, 13 and a half. At school, , my children were among the top in West Gaza.+++

He says he’s unable to grieve until he can bury his family with dignity, just like many others across Gaza. 

ENDS