Civil defence crews in Gaza have recovered 19 bodies — most of them women and children — from a destroyed residential building in Gaza City's western area, concluding a four-day search operation at the site. Recovery teams say the work is severely hampered by a critical shortage of heavy machinery, forcing crews to rely on manual labour to shift concrete rubble, with Gaza's Health Ministry reporting more than 8,000 people still unaccounted for across the territory. The crisis deepens against a broader humanitarian backdrop: Gaza's health chief has issued an urgent appeal for the release of detained Palestinian paediatrician Hussam Abu Safia, who has been held by Israel since December 2024 under a law permitting indefinite detention and is reported to have suffered beatings and eye, head, and chest injuries, with rights groups including Amnesty International warning his life is in imminent danger.