Palestinians attend the funeral of 112 members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, killed in an Israeli strike in 2023 and recently recovered from the rubble, according to Gaza's Civil Defense, on Aug. 4, 2026. (Credit: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)
Dozens of bodies recovered from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City were laid out for burial this week, nearly three years after they went missing.
The 112 bodies, most belonging to members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. Their remains were found only recently.
Hundreds of people attended the collective funeral on Tuesday, one of the largest held in Gaza.
For Ahmed Abu Sharia, a relative of the victims, the burials will finally allow families to grieve.
"We came to mourn our martyrs, our children, our women and our elderly. This is a burial for the Palestinian people," he told AFP. "Some people are still under the rubble. They did not fight and carried no weapons."
Among the 112 bodies recovered in July were 44 children, all members of the same extended family, according to Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, who estimates that more than 8,000 bodies remain buried in Gaza.
"Our teams worked non-stop for 17 days," said Mohammad al-Moughayyir, director of operations for Gaza's Civil Defense, adding that crews used two excavators provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"In some cases, complete skeletons remained intact, held together only by the clothing," he said.
Gaza's Civil Defense and organizations including the ICRC have long criticized Israel, which controls all entry points into the territory, for not allowing enough equipment and construction materials needed to recover bodies.
Since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, search teams have recovered 804 bodies from beneath the rubble across the devastated and besieged enclave after more than two years of war.
'Pulverized bodies'
Despite the cease-fire, the Israeli military has continued daily airstrikes and artillery shelling across Gaza over the past 10 months. Since Oct. 10, 2025, at least 1,254 Palestinians have been killed and another 4,121 injured by Israeli fire, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
During Tuesday's funerals, men gathered to perform funeral prayers. For victims who could be identified, photographs were placed on their bodies.
A member of the al-Husseini family, which lost several relatives, said he had little hope of finding those still missing.
"The bodies of the other victims were pulverized, and their bones and flesh mixed with the concrete debris," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
A report published in April by the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations estimated that Gaza contains 68 million tons of rubble from destroyed or damaged buildings.
The report also found that more than 60% of Gaza's population of more than 2 million people have lost their homes since the start of the war.
Restrictions imposed on the media and limited access to Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely reporting on conditions on the ground.
