Scores of corpses pulled out from rubble in Gaza, toll 985

The bodies of around 85 Palestinians were found under the rubble in eastern Gaza city and the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis during the humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, taking the toll in the Israeli offensive to 985, officials said Saturday.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that rescue teams, medical crews and paramedics pulled out the corpses from the rubble, Xinhua reported.

The toll over the past 19 days of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has climbed to 985 while more than 6,000 people have been wounded, the health ministry said.

On Friday night, both the Islamic Hamas movement and Israel accepted a UN proposal for a 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire starting 8 a.m. Saturday to enable rescue teams and paramedics to search for bodies and evacuate the wounded.

The interior ministry in Gaza asked people not to go to areas close to the Israeli army ground forces in a bid to avoid confrontations.

Before the 12-hour ceasefire came into effect, 27 Palestinians were killed all over the Gaza Strip after midnight and at predawn, said al-Qedra, adding that the worst was when 20 members of a family, most of them women and children, were killed together in one strike on their house at predawn in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

Since the ceasefire started, rescue teams with ambulances and paramedics began looking for survivors, picking up corpses and seeing if there were still wounded people under the rubble in both Sheja'eya in eastern Gaza city and in Khan Younis.