The 6-storey Engineers Tower, located in the Nusayrat Refugee Camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed in the Israeli attack on October 31, 2023.
Palestine Civil Defense Directorate teams have just started their work in the rubble of the building in question, due to ongoing attacks and impossibilities in an area where there is almost "no stone left on stone."
Engineers Tower manager Abdülmecid Ramadan Nassar said in a statement to AA correspondent that his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren lost their lives in the attack.
Stating that the attack on the tower was one of the thousands of attacks carried out by Israel in Gaza, Nassar emphasized that the fact that the bodies remained under the rubble for a long time further increased the pain experienced by the families.
Civil Defense Directorate Spokesperson Mahmud Basal also said that the tower located around 20th Street in the north of Nusayrat Refugee Camp was bombed by Israel "without prior warning or warning".
Stating that there were more than 350 Palestinians and displaced people in the building at the time of the attack, Basal stated that the bodies of approximately 160 people have been removed from the rubble of the building since the beginning of the war.
Stating that it is estimated that there are still remains of approximately 150 people in the debris of the building, Basal noted that the search efforts were carried out with "very limited resources" and only one work machine was used in the area.
More than 8 thousand bodies are under rubble in Gaza
Basal also stated that they estimate that there are more than 8 thousand bodies under the rubble of collapsed buildings in different parts of the Gaza Strip.
Basal stated that they had difficulty reaching many destruction zones and that heavy construction equipment was insufficient, and called on the international community and human rights organizations to provide the necessary support to the civil defense teams in Gaza.
Ismail Sevabite, Director General of the Media Office of the government in Gaza, also stated that the issue of missing people trapped under the rubble is an "unprecedented humanitarian disaster" and called for urgent international intervention.
Stating that the extent of the crisis exceeded local means due to the lack of heavy construction machinery and equipment, Sevabite asked international organizations to support civil defense teams.
Search efforts continue
In the second phase of the "Rescuing the Bodies of Martyrs" project, which was launched by the Civil Defense Directorate in the Gaza Strip on July 19, it is planned to carry out work in the northern and central part of Gaza and the rubble of 147 collapsed buildings in Gaza city.
In this phase, which includes approximately 800 hours of work, it is aimed to find the bodies of 1072 people estimated to be under the rubble.
In the first phase of the project, which started at the end of November 2025, 500 hours of work were carried out in the rubble of 54 houses and buildings, and the remains and remains of 333 of the 559 people considered missing were recovered.
According to government institutions and Palestinian groups in Gaza, in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, which has been in effect since October 10, 2025, it was envisaged that Israel would allow the necessary heavy construction machinery and equipment to enter the region, but Israel did not fulfill this obligation.
More than 73 thousand Palestinians lost their lives, more than 174 thousand people were injured and 90 percent of the civilian infrastructure was damaged in Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, which lasted nearly 2 years and amounted to genocide.
The United Nations estimates the cost of rebuilding Gaza at approximately $70 billion.
