PALESTINIANS in Gaza are burying dozens of hostages returned by Israel in exchange for the remains of Israeli captives, many of which are unrecognisable and show signs of torture and mutilation, according to reports.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed 41 shrouded bodies laid out in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, today as Civil Defence workers prepared them for burial.

Families have been searching among the deceased for missing relatives, but most bodies remain unidentified.

The remains were among those returned from Israel under the current ceasefire agreement.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Basal condemned the “double standards” of organisations that have brought heavy equipment into Gaza to search for Israeli captives, while no such support is provided to recover tens of thousands of Palestinian bodies trapped beneath the rubble.

“True humanity requires the same care to be given to Palestinian bodies as is given to Israeli bodies,” he said.

Mr Basal said retrieving a single body can take 12 hours, and that the scale of destruction means “we need 10,000 days to recover the bodies of 10,000 martyrs.”

He said that the retrieval of bodies was complicated by the issue of where to put the sheer mass of rubble.

More than two weeks after the ceasefire came into effect, Palestinians continue to face severe shortages of food, clean water, fuel and shelter as Israel restricts aid in defiance of a ruling by the International Court of Justice.

Israeli drone strikes near Khan Younis today killed at least two people, with Gaza’s Health Ministry reporting eight deaths and 13 injuries in the last 48 hours.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said the ceasefire is being “undermined by continued assaults” by Israel’s army, and that the international community must ensure it provides “a path towards Palestinian statehood and self-determination.”

Mr Ramaphosa said South Africa’s support for Palestine is based on a “shared history,” saying: “Through solidarity, we can escape the ghosts of the past, overcome the most strident of obstacles, and help reshape our common destiny.”

In Lebanon, the ceasefire with Hezbollah has also been repeatedly violated.

UN peacekeepers said today they shot down an Israeli drone flying “in an aggressive manner” near Kfar Kila over the weekend.

Israel’s army claimed the drone was on a “routine reconnaissance mission” before its forces dropped a grenade near the site.