UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said Tuesday that the recovery of hundreds of bodies from beneath the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes on Gaza during the war that began nearly three years ago is once again raising concerns that war crimes may have been committed there.
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He said what appear to be the remains of entire families are being recovered from sites destroyed by Israeli attacks, with many of the victims believed to be women and children.
“It is heartbreaking that the worst fears of loved ones of those who have been missing for so long are now being confirmed,” he said in a statement.
Turk said the discovery of additional remains has revived concerns raised in a 2024 UN report, which concluded that Israeli strikes on residential buildings and other civilian sites during the first weeks of the war may have violated international humanitarian law.
The office of the Israeli prime minister and the Foreign Ministry had not responded to requests for comment.
Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations that it deliberately targeted civilians and has said it acted in accordance with international law while fighting Hamas in Gaza.
The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, launched after the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, has generated nearly 61 million tons of rubble and debris. The United Nations estimates that removing it could take seven years.
A US-brokered ceasefire ended large-scale fighting in October 2025 but failed to halt repeated Israeli strikes, with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce.
Widespread Destruction in Gaza
The Palestinian Civil Defense said bodies and human remains of more than 630 people had been recovered from beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza since November 2025.
Palestinian authorities estimate that more than 8,000 people remain buried under the rubble.
Turk expressed concern that the remains recovered so far could be “just the tip of the iceberg,” noting that large areas of Gaza have been completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment or by demolition and clearance operations that followed.
He also accused Israel of continuing to destroy parts of Gaza where its forces remain deployed, saying bulldozers are operating “with no regard for the dead beneath the rubble.”
Health authorities in the Gaza Strip said more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Turk called for international investigators to be granted access to all parts of Gaza to help preserve evidence, noting that legal proceedings are underway to examine conduct during the war.
Turk’s statement said Israel had prevented heavy machinery needed to clear the rubble from entering Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, said evidence should be collected and victims’ remains identified before full-scale rubble removal operations begin.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said earlier this month that the bodies and remains of 96 people had been recovered from a single site in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, including 58 children and 23 women.
Source: Reuters
