'We found no trace'

Using manual tools and their bare hands to clear rubble strewn with unexploded bombs, Palestinians begin the immense task of trying to find their loved ones' remains

- By Seham Tantesh GAZA and William Christou JERUSALEM

Ghali Khadr spent two days pleading with his parents to flee with him to southern Gaza, warning them it was too dangerous to stay. His father, known for being stubborn, refused. Their argument was never finished - an Israeli airstrike hit his parents' home, burying them beneath the rubble.

Last Sunday, two days after the ceasefire came into effect, Khadr returned to search through the ruins of his parents' home. All he managed to find were some shards of their skulls and parts of their hands.

“My father, a retired ambulance driver, was known for his strong will and patience. He did not know fear and was always optimistic,” said Khadr, 40, of Jabaliya in 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 last Friday's ceasefire with a grim task ahead of them: searching for loved ones killed weeks or months earlier in Israeli airstrikes and whose bodies are buried under the rubble.