He identified the remains of his nephew in his shoe, as the search continues in Gaza to find the bodies

A day after the cease-fire began in Gaza, the displaced returned to Rafah. The border town is a shell of its former self, with many buildings in ruins and the remains of victims still under the rubble.

Instead of bodies, white bags are filled with clothes, bones and bits of hair – anything families can find to help with identification. Sometimes the word “unknown” is written across the bag in blue marker. Those souls will be buried without a name or loved ones to claim them.

Zaki Shaqafa was searching for bones found under the rubble on Monday, looking for his nephew, Abdul Salam Al-Mughair. He spotted the shoe – gray with a blue triangle on the sides – as he pulled up a photo of his 26-year-old nephew on his phone. Shaqafa pointed to the design and confirmed that it belonged to his nephew.

“We lost about five months ago,” he told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “And this is what confirmed that this martyr is part of our family.”

Nearby, Ibrahim Solayeh, an imam at the mosque, urged residents to come to the European hospital to identify the bodies and help bury them.

“These bodies have been on the streets and under the rubble for a long time,” he told El Saife. “[They] he reached the point of bones and decay.”

The ceasefire, which began on Sunday after more than 15 months of relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza, began with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.

An average of 10,000 bodies under the rubble

Solayeh said he found 50 dead bodies found on Monday, half of which have been identified.

Many remain under rubble across the Gaza Strip.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 15-month war, according to the Ministry of Health in the region. Due to the chaos of the war, confirming the exact number of casualties has been challenging and subject to scrutiny.

A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet on Jan. 9 suggests that official statistics may be greatly underestimated. On June 30, 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 37,877 deaths; research estimated that the number was about 64,200 that day.

The Palestinian Civil Defense said it was searching for approximately 10,000 bodies believed to be buried under the rubble.

Haitham Al-Hams, a rescue worker with the Palestinian Civil Defense, said the agency received more than 100 calls on Monday about decomposing bodies found under the rubble.

“This is a daily operation to protect the public,” Al-Hams told CBC News on Monday.

The extent of the destruction is a ‘massive shock’

At least 2,840 bodies have rotted without a trace, said Mahmoud Basal, said the spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense on Monday.

Mohamed Gomaa, who was displaced and lost his brother and nephew in the war, said the level of destruction in Gaza was “very shocking.”

“The price [of people] “The feeling of shock is inescapable because of what happened in their homes – the destruction, the complete destruction,” Gomaa said.

“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no, no. What happened is a war of extermination.”

Hopeful Palestinians are looking to rebuild the coastal area, which was destroyed by Israeli forces following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

That attack killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

Debris removal could take 21 years: report

Reports estimate that it will take billions of dollars to rebuild Gaza after the level of destruction caused by Israeli bombing.

A UN damage assessment released this month showed that removing the more than 50 million tons of debris left behind by Israeli bombings could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.

Reconstruction of Gaza’s destroyed homes could take at least until 2040, but could drag on for decades, according to a UN report last year.

The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos, and other refugee camps attacked during the war are known to have been built with this material.

The head of the UN Development Program on Sunday said that development in Gaza has been set back 69 years due to this conflict.

Although it appears that the ceasefire will continue on Monday, health officials said eight people were hit by Israeli fire in Rafah, south of Gaza.

The Israeli army said it had fired “warning shots at suspects heading to the armed forces,” according to the cease-fire agreement.