'My heart is broken' Palestinians search for loved ones amid rubble

Ghali Khadr spent two days pleading with his parents to flee with him to southern Gaza, warning them that it was too dangerous to stay.

- Seham Tanteshin Gaza William Christou Jerusalem

His father, a retired ambulance driver known for being stubborn, refused. Their argument was never finished - an Israeli airstrike hit his parents' home, burying them beneath the rubble.

Yesterday, two days after a ceasefire came into effect, Khadr returned to search through the ruins of their home. He spent the day sifting through broken concrete and snarled metal for any sign of them. All he managed to find was some shards of their skulls and parts of their hands.

“My father was known for his strong will and patience. He did not know fear and was always optimistic,” said Khadr, a 40-year-old resident of Jabalia, northern Gaza.

Khadr took the remains of his parents to the graveyard, but found that it too had been destroyed. He decided to bury them next to the few graves that were still intact.

Like Khadr, thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza since Friday's ceasefire with a grim task ahead: searching for loved ones killed weeks or months earlier in Israeli airstrikes, whose bodies remain buried beneath the rubble.

According to the Gaza civil defence, it is estimated that about 10,000 people are still trapped under debris and collapsed buildings. The halt in fighting has given the ambulance service the opportunity to finally start the search for the dead and give their families a chance of closure.