UN warns Gaza body recovery may reveal war crimes

The United Nations human rights chief warned on Tuesday that the ongoing recovery of human remains from the rubble of Gaza is revealing the scale of civilian destruction and raising fresh concerns about possible war crimes. Volker Turk stated that many areas where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be levelled by bulldozers "with no respect for the dead under the rubble." The Palestinian Civil Defence reports that more than 630 bodies and other human remains have been recovered from beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza since November 2025. The UN estimates that over 8,000 people remain missing under the rubble. Turk expressed concern that the remains recovered so far may only be "the tip of the iceberg." The recovery efforts, which have uncovered the remains of what appear to be entire families, are taking place nearly three years after the start of the war. The conflict began following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire brought an end to full-scale fighting in October 2025, but has not halted regular strikes.