Mass funeral held for 112 Palestinians killed in deadly 2023 strike

First responders recovered the bodies over the weekend after digging through the rubble for 136 hours.

Gaza: Palestinians gathered on Tuesday, August 4, for a mass funeral of more than 100 Palestinians from the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023.

More than 300 people were killed on November 22, 2023, weeks into the Israeli military action in Gaza, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood.

Around 40 bodies were recovered soon afterward in a frantic scramble of rough tools and bare hands, but most were buried deep beneath the rubble. Reports of the high number of victims in one of the war’s deadliest attacks took days to reach the public in the chaos just before its first ceasefire.

Bodies recovered after digging for 136 hours

First responders recovered the bodies over the weekend after digging through the rubble for 136 hours, according to the Civil Defence, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. It said 157 bodies still have not been found.

“The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” one relative, Taysir al-Hassayna, told The Associated Press following the funeral prayers.

For the missing, it’s “as if their bodies had evaporated without a trace.”

40 children, 30 women, 7 people with disabilities

The bodies included 40 children, 30 women and seven people with disabilities, the Civil Defence said in a statement, adding that another 157 people remained missing under the rubble.

Hundreds of people gathered for the funeral, where the bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags were laid in rows near the flattened buildings before being carried on stretchers through a narrow street for burial in a nearby cemetery.

The current ceasefire has allowed recovery of remains

Only now are some bodies of people killed in the war’s ferocious early months slowly being recovered, as a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October allows such efforts to push ahead in parts of devastated Gaza.

Those discoveries have contributed to the war’s rising toll. The Hamas-led militant attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 73,377 Palestinians, including since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives to still be under the rubble, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, told the AP. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing, al-Waheidi has said.

The people mourned on Tuesday were from a residential block belonging to the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, and many were related. The Associated Press has identified at least 60 families across Gaza who lost 25 or more family members during the first three months of war.

On Tuesday, the remains of the victims, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows on the ground. Many were marked with photos, and flower petals were scattered around all. Hundreds of people surrounded the bodies for funeral prayers, some standing on the rubble.

Following the prayers, people carried the bodies on stretchers along a narrow street lined by destroyed buildings and buried them in a nearby cemetery.

Gaza is struggling to rebuild amid ceasefire violations

The ceasefire halted much of the fighting, but at least 1,252 people have been killed in Gaza since it took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children make up most of the dead.

Israel says its strikes are against militants who endanger its soldiers, took part in the October 7 attack or carry out other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

Gaza remains largely shattered. Most of its 2 million Palestinians are displaced, many living in tent camps where poor conditions and overcrowding have led to rodent infestations and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as chickenpox.