A father in Gaza searches for his family's bones in the rubble of their home

Описание: (11 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 24 January 2026
1. Mahmoud Hammad shaking sand in large sieve, looking for bones of his wife and children who were killed in Israeli airstrike
2. Hammad pulling piece of bone from the sand and setting it aside
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Hammad, lost his family in Israeli airstrike:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON SHOT1 AND IS PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 2 AND 4-6++
"Thank God, two days ago I found the jawbone of one of my sons. This is a sign that I will reach the rest of my children, God willing. But I will not find them all. I only found 1.8 kilograms of bones belonging to my wife and daughter. After identifying the area where my wife was, I found two shoulder bones. I contacted a doctor on WhatsApp and asked him, 'Doctor, whose bones are these?' He said they were a baby, only a day or two old. I knew my wife was in her tenth month of pregnancy, so I knew she was here.”
4. Various of bag containing bones that Hammad found under rubble
5. Hammad shaking sand in large sieve, looking for bones
6. Various of Hammad and others digging under rubble

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 8 February 2026
7. Various of bulldozer removing rubble looking for remains of people who were killed in Israeli airstrike

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 7 February 2026
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ramzi Salim, lost his family in Israeli airstrike:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 9-12++
“After two years and two and a half months, after numerous appeals at all levels, the organizations finally helped us. They extinguished the fire in our hearts and helped us recover the bodies of our children. There were more than 120 martyrs here. 54 martyrs are still under the rubble today.”
9. Civil defense carrying bag containing remains of killed people
10. Skulls among rubble
11. Civil defense taking bones out of rubble
12. Ramzi Salim sitting near bags containing remains of his killed relatives and crying
13. People gathering near rubble

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 8 February 2026
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rafeeq Salim, lost his family in Israeli strikes:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 15++
”A painful feeling, how can I describe it? I wished I could find my wife and children, to bury them in graves, for you to visit them in their graves, but I couldn't find them.”
15. People gathering near bags containing remains on the ground near destroyed building
STORYLINE:
Crouching on the ground over a pile of rubble that used to be his Gaza home, Mahmoud Hammad scooped up handfuls of dirt into a large sieve and shook it, looking carefully before dumping it out.

He repeated the process over and over again, looking for the tiniest bone fragments — anything remaining after a bomb ripped through his home, killing his wife and five children.

Some 8,000 people remain buried under the rubble of their homes destroyed by Israel’s bombardment during its campaign against Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Hammad, 39, is one of thousands of Palestinians who are still searching for their loved ones.

Around 11:30 a.m. on December 6, 2023, an Israeli strike smashed into the six-story building where the families of Hammad and his brother lived in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.

The airstrike levelled the 200-square-meter house and killed Hammad’s nine-month-pregnant wife and their five children who were just finished their breakfast.

His brother, sister-in-law and their four sons were also all killed.














Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...