Gaza rubble likely to conceal untold horrors to swell 40,000 death toll

The figure given by the strip's health officials does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses, excluding those missing or buried in rubble

• Middle East crisis live - latest updates

Dalia Hawas was 24 years old when an Israeli airstrike flattened the apartment building where she lived in February, burying the young mother with her 10-month-old daughter, Mona. They are not listed among Gaza's war dead, because their bodies were trapped too deep beneath the rubble for rescue teams to reach them.

Ten months into Israel's war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. Most of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza's prewar population, or one in every 50 residents.