Three years after Israeli bombing, Palestinian man recovers wife's remains

Three years after Israeli bombing, Palestinian man recovers wife's remains

Submitted by Ahmed Dremly on Mon, 10/05/2026 - 10:08 Adham Heriz spent years searching for his family beneath the ruins of their Gaza City home. A new civil defence operation recovered the remains of 105 Palestinians, but his son is still missing A mass funeral for 105 Palestinians whose remains were recovered from beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings in the al-Taj area of Gaza City's al-Yarmouk neighbourhood, 1 October 2026 (Bilal Osama/Apaimages via Reuters) Off

For nearly three years, Adham Heriz, 41, waited to recover and bury the bodies of his wife and children.

On Thursday, after years of searching through the ruins of their neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, the Palestinian father finally recovered the remains of his wife, Hiam, 37. His son’s body is still missing.

Hiam and their eldest son, Anas, 17, were killed when a heavy Israeli bombardment completely destroyed their home in Al-Yarmouk on 25 October 2023.

According to the Palestinian civil defence spokesperson in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, the attack involved a series of heavy Israeli bombardments that struck 18 buildings containing around 175 residential apartments.

Around 450 people were inside the buildings, including doctors, academics, journalists, children and infants, Basal told MEE.

“There were people thrown by the explosion around 200 metres. Entire families were wiped out. Many dead bodies were completely disintegrated, leaving little or no trace behind because of the massive explosives used in the bombs,” he said. 

At the time, civil defence teams were able to recover only 120 bodies because Israeli forces were advancing and continuing to attack the area. Much of the heavy equipment and vehicles needed to move the rubble had also been destroyed.

Hiam’s remains were among those of 105 people recovered from beneath the rubble during a 20-day civil defence operation in the neighbourhood last week.

“I found the remains of my wife and my brother and his family, but I did not find the body of my son,” Heriz told Middle East Eye.

A black cloud

Heriz and his family of seven lived on the sixth floor of a seven-storey building.

On 25 October, they had lunch together. Hiam and two of their daughters went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Minutes later, Israeli strikes hit the area.

“It was like a black cloud covering everything,” Heriz recalled. 

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“I felt like I was flying and being thrown under the rubble with each strike. I could not hear anything. I could not breathe because of the bomb powder and dust.

“I was thinking about my family. I managed to pull myself out from under the rubble. I saw my son Ahmed, eight, alive but bleeding heavily beside me, before I collapsed because most of my bones were broken.”

His two youngest daughters, Siwar, three, and Dima, 10, also escaped the rubble, both seriously wounded. Ahmed survived the attack.

But Hiam, Anas and their two elder daughters, Shahad, 18, and Dareen, 15, were killed and remained beneath the rubble.

Heriz’s brother and his family of five were also killed.

“People moved me to an ambulance while I was crying for my family under the rubble. ‘Forgive me, my children. I can't pull you out. I can't feel my hands; they are broken,’” he said.

With the help of civil defence search-and-rescue workers and residents, the bodies of Heriz’s daughters, Shahad and Dareen, were recovered.

Voices beneath the rubble

But rescuers could not move the vast amount of rubble needed to reach Hiam, Anas and others believed to be trapped beneath the destroyed building.

Heriz and his relatives repeatedly searched the site, but without the equipment needed to clear the debris, they were unable to recover the remaining bodies.

'We found a less-than-one-year-old child in his crib beneath the rubble, still holding his milk pacifier in his hand'

- Adham Heriz, Palestinian father

He had lost hope of finding his family’s remains until civil defence teams began a new operation in the area last month.

The operation was coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with vehicles supplied by Egypt and fuel provided through Ocha, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“During the 20-day search, we were able to pull up the bodies of 37 dead children alone from under the building I was living in,” Heriz said.

“We found a less-than-one-year-old child in his crib beneath the rubble, still holding his milk pacifier in his hand. When his father saw him and identified him by the clothes he was wearing, he collapsed from the shock.”

As the operation continued, Heriz finally found the remains of his wife, his brother and his brother’s family.

But his son’s body was not found.

The recovery of the remains brought back memories for other survivors who spent the first days after the attack trying to pull people from beneath the rubble with almost no equipment.

A few hours before the massacre in the same neighbourhood, Abd Al Rahman Heriz, 21, was sitting with relatives and neighbours, talking about the hope that the genocide would soon end and a ceasefire would be reached.

He then returned home to help his primary-school-age sister with a maths lesson.

Minutes later, the bombing began.

'I still have nightmares. I hear in my mind the voices of people calling for help'

- Abd Al Rahman Heriz, witnesss of massacre

His house was partially damaged because it stood close to the buildings that were destroyed. He and his family rushed into the street.

“We were not able to recognise our neighbourhood,” Abd Al Rahman said. “The sky was black with dust, rubble and fire. Injured and killed people were everywhere. Houses were destroyed. There were no trees, no signs of anything.”

Outside his building, he saw the body of a neighbour who had been cut in half, with a bundle of bread lying beside it.

Abd Al Rahman helped his family move to a relatives’ home in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

He then returned to help rescue people trapped beneath the rubble.

Most of the relatives and neighbours he had been sitting with before the bombing had been killed and remained buried beneath the ruins.

Basic hand tools

With civil defence teams largely unable to reach the area, Abd Al Rahman and other survivors used basic hand tools, including hammers, shovels and metal cutters, to break through the rubble.

“I remained for three days with many of my surviving neighbours, doing our best to help pull people out, he recalled.

“We were able to pull two young sisters from under the rubble. Their father was lying dead beside them. They were crying for him. We moved his body to an ambulance and tried to calm the children down.

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With help from civil defence workers, they also managed to rescue a woman who had survived three days beneath the rubble.

But as Israeli attacks intensified, they were forced to leave, even as they could still hear people calling for help from beneath the ruins.

“We could hear the voices of people who were still alive but trapped under the rubble, as well as the bodies of hundreds of others, including people of my extended family.”

He said the experience continues to haunt him.

“I still have nightmares. I hear in my mind the voices of people calling for help: ‘Help us, pull us out.’ One girl was calling, ‘My sister is dead beside me. Pull her and me out.’”

During the 20-day operation last month, civil defence teams recovered the remains of 105 people, including 36 who remain unidentified.

Basal outlined the many challenges facing rescue teams, particularly when bodies have not been recovered for a significant amount of time.

“They had reached an advanced stage of decomposition and their facial features were no longer recognisable. There is no DNA testing or any other means of identifying who they are,” he said.

Israel's war in Gaza killed approximately 75,000 people, and it is estimated that there are around 8,000 people still missing beneath the rubble across the Gaza Strip. 

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