A UN access request over Gaza's uncounted dead raises questions that could shape how this war is judged.
The United Nations has called on Israel to grant international investigators access to every part of Gaza, as the recovery of human remains from the territory's ruins continues nearly three years after the war began.
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The UN's human rights office said gathering evidence at destroyed sites was essential, urging that "international investigators be allowed into all parts of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering."
Most of the dead being recovered are reported to be women and children, a detail the UN says points to the likelihood that war crimes were committed during the campaign.
"The remains of what appears to be entire families are now being unearthed at locations that were pulverised by Israeli attacks," UN rights chief Volker Turk pointed out in a statement.
"I worry the remains recovered so far may only be the tip of the iceberg," he said, pointing to how "much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives".
"Today, many areas in Gaza where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be levelled by bulldozers with no respect for the dead under the rubble," he said.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, more than 630 bodies and other remains have been pulled from beneath collapsed buildings across Gaza since last November alone.
The UN's rights office cited an estimate that over 8,000 people remain missing under the rubble — a figure that underscores how much of the territory's devastation has yet to be fully accounted for.
Turk insisted that "every feasible effort must be taken to document and identify these victims, preserve forensic information and biological samples, record their burial locations and inform their families".
"The discovery of extensive remains under the rubble in Gaza City resurfaces (the) concerns of war crimes and other atrocity crimes," he warned.
The war began after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed at least 1,195 people according to official Israeli data. Israel's subsequent bombing campaign and ground invasion left much of Gaza in ruins.
Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, says the offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in total, including over 1,350 since a ceasefire was signed last October.
For European governments navigating the diplomatic fallout of the conflict, the UN's call adds pressure on Israel to open Gaza to independent scrutiny at a moment when the scale of civilian loss is still being uncovered.