How to dig corps in Gaza a problem

Dozens of dead bodies remain under the rubble in
Rafah, as Israel' s assault on southern Gaza kills
scores of civilians .
Rafah, Gaza Strip - Under continued Israeli air
strikes and artillery fire, Issa Akel has no other
choice : The 50 -year -old bulldozer driver must stop
unearthing the dead bodies buried beneath the rubble
in this southern Gaza town and seek safety for
himself .
In Hay al -Junina , east of Rafah, Akel went on a
mission to rescue the dead, but he soon realised that
his life was in danger. On Saturday , the town 's roads
were littered with dead bodies , left bleeding for hours
without any ambulance crew arriving to rescue
them .
" We are now unable to dig out bodies of people from
under the ground ," Subhi Radwan , the mayor of
Rafah, told Al Jazeera . He explained that his office
receives hundreds of calls for help, but the
municipality' s trucks can ' t access most areas.
Local medics said that at least 110 people have been
killed in Rafah in the past 24 hours, while hundreds
more have been injured . At least 1 ,680 Palestinians
have been killed and 8 ,500 others hurt in Gaza since
Israel's military offensive began on July 8 .
On Friday, an Israeli tank shell struck an ambulance
in Rafah, killing three medical crew members: Yousef
Elshiekh Eid, Yousef Darabeh, and Atef Alzamli .
Meanwhile , the city ' s only hospital, Abu Yousef Al
Najjar, has been under constant Israeli artillery
shelling, forcing doctors to evacuate their patients
and the dead bodies .
The killings in Rafah occurred just two hours after an
internationally brokered , 72- hour humanitarian
ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into
effect. Israel blamed Hamas for shattering the truce,
while the Palestinian group said Israeli troops used
the short -lived deal to storm into Rafah and kill
residents .
Meanwhile , Ashraf al - Qedra of Gaza' s health
ministry has appealed to international groups to
ensure that ambulances have a secure route to
evacuate victims to the nearby town of Khan
Younes .
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chokehold
With nowhere safe left to take the dead , people in
Rafah have begun storing the bodies of their loved-
ones in refrigerators usually used to store food
items . Al Jazeera saw dozens of bodies stuffed into
one such refrigerator.
Nearly half the city was under Israeli bombardment
on Saturday, making it difficult to arrange proper
burials . " Injured people [are ] calling us … but we
can 't get to them ," said a local ambulance driver.
" No one is safe, ambulance crew , municipality
workers, and civilians in their homes , are hit ," Mayor
Radwan told Al Jazeera.
The crisis in Rafah has resulted in a lack of
electricity, water, and sanitation services . " We are
receiving hundreds of phone calls from people who
have no water and they can 't move under constant
artillery shelling, " said Radwan, explaining that
between 30,000 - 40, 000 people have been left
without drinking water in the eastern part of the city .
The violence has also created thousands of new
internally displaced persons , according to the United
Nations, including many who have sought shelter in
overcrowded UN schools. At least 280 , 000
Palestinians across Gaza have now been displaced.
The UN estimates that 76 families have lost three or
more members in the same in incident, totalling over
400 deaths .
Radwan said he had never seen a war like this in his
62 years, more than half of which has been spent
working in public services in Rafah. " In the past I
have dealt with [ the] Egyptian and Israeli military ,"
he said, " but it has never reached [ this ] level of no
consideration for [ the] humanitarian crisis " .